Old Ivory
Retired1936-1951
Introduced at the annual Pottery and Glass Exhibit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January 1936 - meet Old Ivory. One of the original colors of Fiesta drawn up by Frederick Hurten Rhead himself - Old Ivory would later be revived by the current Ivory in post-86 when Fiesta returned to the marketplace.
Production
Old Ivory was retired in 1951, 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 Old Ivory
Old Ivory is the quiet one of the original five, and the one doing the most work. It's a warm off-white - genuinely creamy rather than gray - and it was there to keep Red, Cobalt, Green and Yellow from shouting over each other. Fifteen years, then retired in 1951. If you're trying to identify a piece, this is where it gets tricky: Old Ivory sits within a few ΔE of both the modern Ivory and Linen, close enough that a photograph won't settle it. Shape and backstamp will. The later Ivory, introduced in 2008, is the closest modern stand-in if you're filling gaps in a vintage table.
Using Old Ivory on a table
Old Ivory carries almost no color of its own, so it is the layer everything else sits on. Build the table out of it and add one loud piece. At L* 94 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 (1.2:1), so it shows best on dark wood or a colored runner.
Below, 4 combinations built only from colors Fiesta has actually produced. Each says which rule it follows, and which pieces you can still buy today.
Buy these to go with it
Old Ivory was retired in 1951, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
A ground for bright colors
Old Ivory carries almost no hue of its own, which makes it the ground the rest of the table sits on. These are the boldest colors in the palette, spread right around the wheel - the mix-and-match look Fiesta was designed for.
Anchored in neutrals
Old Ivory is close to neutral, so it works as the quiet ground under a louder color.
-
Your color Old Ivory
- Red, 1936-1943
- Twilight
- Sage
Nothing but neutrals
Every color here is a white, gray or black, stepped from lightest to darkest. No hue anywhere, so the shapes and the food do the work.
Where Old Ivory sits in the line
Old Ivory was the first white Fiesta made; 5 more have followed it. In 1936 it arrived alongside Blue (Cobalt), Green (Light), Red, 1936-1943 and Yellow, 1936-1969. What else happened in 1936 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Old Ivory. 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 Old Ivory
9 colors were in production at the same time: