Bold Sol Sapphire

Old English beald, brave, courageous — a quality word that crossed over to color in the late seventeenth century. Bold describes a color that asserts itself: high saturation combined with mid lightness, where the hue presents itself without compromise. Sits at the center of the bold-bucket grid, near strong and rich. Closer to a presence word than a pigment word.

Latin sol, sun-and-Roman-sun-god. As a color modifier, sol implies a Roman-sun-god-and-stellar-disc quality, the visual register of Roman-Sol-Invictus-and-Apollo-sun hand-Roman-sun-god-and-stellar-disc Roman-Sol-Invictus-and-Apollo-sun-and-Helios-chariot sol-and-Roman-sun-god-and-stellar-disc surfaces under Roman-Sol-Invictus-and-Apollo-sun-and-Helios-chariot December-25-and-Helios-and-quadriga noon-stellar-disc-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to luna and terra in usage.

An iron-and-titanium-bearing corundum — the same mineral as ruby, hardness 9 on the Mohs scale, mined for two millennia from Sri Lanka, Burma, Madagascar, and the Cashmere mines of British India. The color refers to a fine Kashmir-cut sapphire: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue with the gem's signature internal velvet — a quality of light scattering in the stone that faceted glass cannot replicate. Cooler than cobalt, deeper than azure.