You’d think they’d stay in my head! Being a stickler for historical accuracy, it wouldn’t do to describe a Pomona green gown as sage or moss colored, and to call a butter-colored gown yellow would be blasphemous; better to call it primrose or jonquil. I’ve used all of those descriptive colors in my books.
So today, I’m simply going to list some popular colors and images of Regency attire.
It’s interesting to note, that while some colors appeared on nearly every site I’ve visited during my research (Pomona green, Jonquil, Puce), others are only mentioned on that particular site.
Jonquil: Yellow, as in daffodil
Primrose and evening primrose: Both shades of yellow. Primrose is slightly lighter than Jonquil, while evening primrose is more lemony or canary yellow.
Puce: a purplish pink. Puce means flea in French and is thus named for a flea gorged with blood. Eewww!
However, I did find a wonderful resource, History Place Blog Spot which has an amazing list of color names, an example of the color, and the origin too. Several blues are listed there, so I can breath a bit easier.
Blossom-a light pink
Bottle Green-just like you’d think!
Mazurine Blue-be still my heart. First time I’ve heard of this color. A splendid mixture of indigo and violet. I think it may be my new favorite!
Slate– A mix between gray and lavender.
| APOLLO: bright gold.(1823) AURORA: chili-colored. (1809) AETHERIAL: sky blue. (1820) AZURE: sky blue. (1820) BARBEL: sky blue. (1820) CAMELEOPARD : French beige. (1825) CLARENCE: sky blue. (1820) DEVONSHIRE BROWN: mastic (1812) |
DUST OF RUINS: squirrel. (1822) EGYPTIAN BROWN: mace. (1809) ESTERHAZY: silver grey. (1822) ISABELLA: cream. (1822) LAVENDER: between heliotrope and parma. (1824) MARIE LOUISE: calamine blue. (1812) MEXICAN: steel blue. (1817) |
MORONE: peony red. (1811) POMONA: sea green. (1811) PRINCESS ELIZABETH LILAC: Alice blue . (1812) RUSSIAN FLAME: pale mastic. (1811) SPRING: Cossack green . (1810) TERRE D’EGYPTE: brick red.(1824) VIOLET: parma violet |
Bishop’s blue-again a purplish blue
Fawn-a pale, yellow-tan
Pompeian Red-deep red
Nakara-pearlish in color
The most popular color during the Regency Era according to several sites I visited? Puce.
I used all of these sites below for this post and encourage you to visit them. They are loaded with a wealth of information.
- http://sarahs-history-place.blogspot.com/2011/09/colours-used-in-regency-and-georgian.html
- http://www.janeausten.co.uk/colours-of-the-regency/
- http://hibiscus-sinensis.com/regency/colors.htm
- http://romancereaderatheart2.com/regency/timeline/index.html
- http://historyink.blogspot.com/2012/04/list-of-regency-colors-for-clothing.html
- http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/ppbrokil.html
