Product Code Database
Mauve ( ; ) is a pale purple color Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, College Edition (1964): "any of several shades of delicate purple." named after the Malva flower (French: mauve). The first use of the word mauve as a color was in 1796–1798 according to the Oxford English Dictionary, but its use seems to have been rare before 1859. Another name for the color is mallow,Maerz and Paul. A Dictionary of Color. New York: 1930, McGraw-Hill. p. 198 with the first recorded use of mallow as a color name in English language in 1611.Maerz and Paul. A Dictionary of Color. New York: 1930, McGraw-Hill. p. 198; Color Sample of Mallow: p. 125, Plate 51, Color Sample I3
Mauve contains more grey and more blue than a pale tint of magenta. Many pale wildflowers called "blue" are more accurately classified as mauve. Mauve is also sometimes described as pale violet.
Earlier references to a mauve dye in 1856–1858 referred to a color produced using the semi-synthetic dye murexide or a mixture of natural dyes. Perkin was so successful in marketing his discovery to the dye industry that his 2000 biography by Simon Garfield is simply entitled Mauve. Between 1859 and 1861, mauve became a fashion must-have. The weekly journal All the Year Round described women wearing the colour as "all flying countryward, like so many migrating birds of purple paradise". Punch magazine published cartoons poking fun at the huge popularity of the colour: "The Mauve Measles are spreading to so serious an extent that it is high time to consider by what means they may be checked."
But, because it faded easily, the success of mauve dye was short-lived; by 1873, it was replaced by other synthetic dyes. As the memory of the original dye soon receded, the contemporary understanding of mauve is as a lighter, less-saturated color than it was originally known. History of Dyes from 2600 BC to 20th Century - natural dyes, synthetic, by Susan C. Druding, 1982
The 1890s are sometimes referred to in retrospect as the " Mauve Decade" because of the popularity of the subtle color among progressive artistic types, both in Europe and the US.
The first recorded use of opera mauve as a color name in English language was in 1927.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200; Color Sample page 107 Plate 42 Color Sample H5--Opera Mauve
The first recorded use of mauve taupe as a color name in English was in 1925.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 203; Color Sample of Mauve Taupe Page 37 Plate 7 Color Sample C8--Mauve Taupe
The first recorded use of old mauve as a color name in English was in 1925.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200; Color Sample of Old Mauve: Page 109 Plate 46 Color Sample I5
The normalized color coordinates for old mauve are identical to wine dregs, which was first recorded as a color name in English in 1924.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 207; Color Sample of Wine Dregs Page 37 Plate 7 Color Sample L7
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