Royal Jupiter Ruby

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.

Latin Iuppiter, Roman-king-of-gods-and-fifth-planet. As a color modifier, jupiter implies a Roman-king-of-gods-and-fifth-planet-and-gas-giant quality, the visual register of Roman-Jupiter-Optimus-Maximus-and-Galileo-moons hand-Roman-king-of-gods-and-fifth-planet-and-gas-giant Roman-Jupiter-Optimus-Maximus-and-Galileo-moons-and-Great-Red-Spot jupiter-and-Roman-king-of-gods surfaces under Roman-Jupiter-Optimus-Maximus-and-Galileo-moons-and-Great-Red-Spot Capitoline-Hill-and-Galilean-moon-discovery king-of-planets-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to venus and saturn in usage.

From the Latin ruber — simply, red. The gemstone is a chromium-tinged corundum, harder than anything in nature except diamond, and so saturated that a fine Burmese pigeon's blood ruby at auction outpaces a comparable diamond by weight. The color borrows the gem's confidence: a clear, glassy red without the brown of garnet or the blue of crimson.