Anchored Agora Royal

The past participle of anchor, used since the late nineteenth century as a metaphor for secured in place. As a color word, anchored implies a deep saturated tone that grounds a palette — the dark blues, deep greens, and browns that hold a composition together. Sits in the bold-and-deep corner of the grid alongside solid.

Greek agora, Greek-marketplace. As a color modifier, agora implies a Greek-and-Athens-marketplace quality, the visual register of Athenian-and-Spartan-Agora hand-built marketplace-and-civic-meeting-square agora-and-stoa-and-bouleuterion classical-Greek architectural surfaces under Athenian-Agora-and-Spartan-Lacedaemon classical light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to forum and stoa in usage.

The blue of European royal court dress and regalia from the late seventeenth century forward — the color of British peers' robes, French royal sashes, the lining of the crown-jewel cases. The color refers to a saturated, slightly violet-shifted blue with the matte finish of velvet or melton wool dyed to maximum intensity: deeper than cornflower, warmer than ultramarine, with the heraldic weight of a color reserved for monarchs and the official Crown.