From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Persian blue (not to be confused with prussian blue) comes in three shades: Persian blue proper—a bright medium blue; medium Persian blue (a medium slightly grayish blue that is slightly indigoish); and a kind of dark blue that is much closer to indigo; this darker shade of Persian blue is referred to as Persian indigo or dark Persian blue.).

Other colors associated with Persia include Persian red and Persian green.

Persian blue

Persian blue
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#1C39BB
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(28, 57, 187)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(249°, 85%, 49%)
Source		[Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color Persian blue is named from the blue color of some Persian pottery and the color of tiles used in and on mosques and palaces in Iran and in other places in the Middle East. Persian blue is a representation of the color of the mineral lapis lazuli which comes from Persia and Afghanistan. (The color azure is also named after the mineral lapis lazuli.)

The first recorded use of Persian blue as a color name in English was in 1669. ^[1]

The source of this color is a color sample taken directly from the Persian blue tiles shown in the photograph displayed in the Wikipedia article on the Shah Mosque of the interior tile work of its dome.

Persian indigo

Persian indigo
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#32127A
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(50, 18, 122)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(258°, 85%, 48%)
Source		[Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the color Persian indigo. It is also called dark Persian blue. Another name for this color (seldom used nowadays) is regimental.

Persian indigo is named for an association with a product from Persia: Persian cloth dyed with indigo.

The first recorded use of regimental (the original name for the color now called Persian indigo) as a color name in English was in 1912. ^[2]

Medium Persian blue

Medium Persian blue
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#0067A5
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(0, 103, 165)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(248°, 75%, 48%)
Source		ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Medium Persian blue is a less saturated shade of Persian blue.

The source of this color is the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955), a color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps, now on the Internet--see sample of the color Persian blue (color sample #178) displayed on indicated web page: [1].

Persian blue and Persian indigo in human culture

Architecture

• Many beautiful mosques in Iran, such as the enormous Shah Mosque in Isfahan, have interiors that are faced with tiles that are Persian blue or close variations of it.

Military

• The color Persian indigo, which as noted above was originally called regimental, was called by that name because it used to be the color of the navy uniforms a number of different nations.

New Age Metaphysics

• The metaphysical books (on topics such as the seven rays) written by the New Age Prophetess Alice A. Bailey (which she claimed to have channeled from the ascended master Djwal Khul) in earlier editions up to and including the 1970s were originally bound in medium Persian blue, but since the 1980s, they have been bound in Persian blue.

Persian carpets

• When blue Persian carpets are produced, medium Persian blue is the shade of blue most commonly used.

References

1. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 201; color sample of Persian blue: Page 95 Plate 36 Color Sample L4
2. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 203; color sample of Regimental: Page 117 Plate 47 Color Sample C10

External links

• Painting "The Snake Charmer" (1870) by Jean-Leon Gerome shows a snake charmer in a Persian market with Persian blue tiles in background