Chartreuse
Retired1997-1999 · Color No. 117
Introducing Chartreuse, made by The Fiesta Tableware Company from 1997 to 1999. It's a vibrant and refreshing shade of green with yellow undertones, reminiscent of the citrusy hue of chartreuse liqueur. Chartreuse adds a pop of color and a sense of zest to any tablescape. Mix and match Chartreuse with colors like White and Turquoise for a lively and summery table setting, or pair it with Plum and Slate for a sophisticated and modern combination.
Production
Chartreuse was retired in 1999, so it is a hunt for secondhand pieces now. Fiesta Factory Direct is where the colors still being made are, if you are filling a set.
Shop Fiesta Factory Direct (opens in a new tab)Notes on Chartreuse
Post 86 Chartreuse ran two years, 1997 to 1999, and it is nothing like the vintage color of the same name. Where the 1951 Chartreuse was a soft yellow-green, this one is genuinely acid - one of the most saturated glazes in the whole line. It arrived the same year as the Raspberry presentation bowls and displaced Sapphire on the shelf. Two years is a short run, so it's not easy to find. Lemongrass, which came along in 2009, is the closest Fiesta has come to repeating it. If you're searching listings, filter by the years - the name alone will give you both eras.
Using Chartreuse on a table
Chartreuse carries enough color to lead a table on its own. Use it for the plates and let quieter pieces do the rest; two or three settings of it go a long way. At L* 80 it is one of the paler glazes in the line: dark food reads sharply against it, pale food much less so. It nearly disappears against a white cloth (1.7:1), so it shows best on dark wood or a colored runner.
Below, 5 combinations built only from colors Fiesta has actually produced. Each says which rule it follows, and which pieces you can still buy today.
The pairing in its own description
Named in the descriptionThese colors are named alongside Chartreuse in this guide's description of it.
- White
- Turquoise, 1937-1969
-
Your color Chartreuse, 1997-1999
- Plum
- Slate
Buy these to go with it
Chartreuse was retired in 1999, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
Opposite on the wheel
Lilac sits roughly opposite Chartreuse in hue, which is the highest-contrast pairing the palette offers. The neutrals keep it from shouting.
All green
Every color here is from the green family, arranged light to dark. A single-family table reads calm and deliberate rather than busy.
- Sea Mist Green
-
Your color Chartreuse, 1997-1999
- Forest Green
- Evergreen
Three-way split
Peacock and Heather sit about a third of the way around the color wheel from Chartreuse in each direction. Evenly spaced hues stay lively without any one taking over.
Where Chartreuse sits in the line
Chartreuse arrived while Sea Mist Green was still in production, and is noticeably more vivid than it - a clearly different glaze rather than a reformulation (ΔE 22.1). It lasted 2 years where the median for its era is 7, which is why it turns up so rarely. In 1997 it arrived alongside Raspberry and took the place of Sapphire and Raspberry on the shelf. What else happened in 1997 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Chartreuse. Under about ΔE 5 two colors are hard to tell apart side by side - useful when you are identifying an unmarked piece.
On the table alongside Chartreuse
13 colors were in production at the same time. The 10 nearest in the timeline: