Puce

Puce is a brownish purple colour. The term comes from the French couleur puce, literally meaning "flea colour".

Puce became popular in the late 18th century in France. It appeared in clothing at the court of Louis XVI. The colour was said to be a favourite colour of Marie Antoinette; however, there are no portraits of her wearing it.

Puce was also a popular fashion colour in 19th-century Paris. In his novel Nana, Émile Zola describes a woman "dressed in a dark gown of an equivocal colour, somewhere between puce and goose shit." In Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Mademoiselle Baptistine wears "a gown of puce-coloured silk, of the fashion of 1806, which she had purchased at that date in Paris, and which had lasted ever since."

The color to the right is the color called puce in the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955). Since this color has a hue code of 353, it is a slightly purplish red.

The color box to the right shows the color called puce in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul, A Dictionary of Color; the color puce is displayed on page 37, Plate 7, Color Sample H4.

At right is the color called puce in the Pourpre.com color list, a color list widely popular in France. This is the original puce, from which all other tones of puce ultimately derive.

The color at right is called puce in the Pantone color list.

The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #19-1518 TPX—Puce.

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