Cobalt
Retired1987-2021 · Color No. 105
Introducing Cobalt, made by The Fiesta Tableware Company from 1987 to 2021. It's a rich and vibrant shade of blue, reminiscent of the deep blue hues of the ocean. Cobalt adds a bold and striking touch to any tablescape. Mix and match Cobalt with colors like White and Turquoise for a refreshing and nautical-themed table setting, or pair it with Poppy and Sunflower for a dynamic and energetic combination.
Production
Cobalt was retired in 2021, 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 Cobalt
Post 86 Cobalt arrived in 1987 with Rose and Yellow, reviving the name from the original 1936 palette, and it ran thirty-four years before retiring in 2021 - one of the longest runs in the line. It's a deep, near-navy blue that anchors a table the way nothing else in the modern palette does. Worth knowing: this and the vintage Cobalt are close enough that a photo won't separate them, so if you're buying online, the color number is what settles it. Post 86 pieces carry No. 105; vintage ones predate numbering entirely. Twilight, introduced in 2021, is the closest modern replacement.
Using Cobalt on a table
Cobalt is soft enough to sit beside almost anything. It works as a bridge between two stronger colors that would otherwise argue. At L* 17 it is a genuinely dark plate, so pale food stands out on it and dark food disappears. It separates strongly from a white cloth (14.5:1) and less so from dark wood.
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 Cobalt in this guide's description of it.
- White
- Sunflower
- Turquoise, 1937-1969
- Poppy
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Your color Cobalt
Buy these to go with it
Cobalt was retired in 2021, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
Opposite on the wheel
Yellow sits roughly opposite Cobalt in hue, which is the highest-contrast pairing the palette offers. The neutrals keep it from shouting.
- White
- Yellow, 1936-1969
- Sage
-
Your color Cobalt
All blue
Every color here is from the blue family, arranged light to dark. A single-family table reads calm and deliberate rather than busy.
Three-way split
Heather and Shamrock sit about a third of the way around the color wheel from Cobalt in each direction. Evenly spaced hues stay lively without any one taking over.
Where Cobalt sits in the line
Cobalt took over from Turquoise, 1937-1969 as Fiesta's blue, and is noticeably darker than it - a complete change of direction rather than a reformulation (ΔE 50.5). It has been in production 34 years against a median of 7 for its era - one of the colors the company kept. In 1987 it arrived alongside Rose, 1987-2005 and Yellow, 1987-2002. What else happened in 1987 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Cobalt. 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 Cobalt
41 colors were in production at the same time. The 10 nearest in the timeline: