Stately Cape Violet

An adjectival form of state, condition of dignity. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for the deep saturated jewel tones of formal ceremony — the deep blue of a robes-of-state, the deep red of a state-banquet velvet. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial and royal, with slightly less institutional weight.

Latin cappa, hooded-cloak. As a color modifier, cape implies a hooded-cloak-and-shoulder-cape quality, the visual register of Spanish-capa-and-Italian-cappa-magna hand-hooded-cloak-and-shoulder-cape Spanish-capa-and-Italian-cappa-magna-and-Portuguese-capa cape-and-hooded-cloak-and-shoulder-cape surfaces under Spanish-capa-and-Italian-cappa-magna-and-Portuguese-capa Iberian-and-Italian-Renaissance Iberian-cape-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to cloak and cope in usage.

Viola odorata, the European sweet violet — small, fragrant, and the original meaning of the color name in English (the Violet of the rainbow). The color refers to a fresh sweet violet blossom in late winter: a saturated, slightly red-shifted deep blue-purple with the matte finish of small five-petaled flower. Cooler than amethyst, warmer than indigo, with the perfumed weight of a flower used in Roman garlands and Victorian eau de toilette.