Persimmon
Retired1995-2008 · Color No. 114
Introducing Persimmon, made by The Fiesta Tableware Company from 1995 to 2008. It's a warm and inviting shade of orange, reminiscent of ripe persimmon fruits. Persimmon adds a pop of color and a sense of warmth to any tablescape. Mix and match Persimmon with colors like Ivory and Turquoise for a vibrant and eclectic table setting, or pair it with Slate and Plum for a rich and sophisticated combination.
Production
Persimmon was retired in 2008, 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 Persimmon
Persimmon ran thirteen years, 1995 to 2008, and it replaced Lilac on the shelf the year it arrived. It's a warm coral-orange with real punch - considerably more saturated than the Apricot it overlapped with, and enough color to lead a table by itself. It sits very close to Flamingo and reasonably close to Tangerine, which came along in 2003 and eventually took over the orange slot. If you're building around it, it's a lead color: use it for the plates and let quieter pieces do the rest.
Using Persimmon on a table
Persimmon 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. Its mid lightness (L* 64) means most food reads against it without either washing out or vanishing. It nearly disappears against a white cloth (2.8:1), 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 Persimmon in this guide's description of it.
- Ivory
-
Your color Persimmon
- Turquoise, 1937-1969
- Plum
- Slate
Buy these to go with it
Persimmon was retired in 2008, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
Opposite on the wheel
Sky sits roughly opposite Persimmon in hue, which is the highest-contrast pairing the palette offers. The neutrals keep it from shouting.
All orange
Every color here is from the orange family, arranged light to dark. A single-family table reads calm and deliberate rather than busy.
- Apricot
-
Your color Persimmon
- Butterscotch
Three-way split
Meadow and Lavender sit about a third of the way around the color wheel from Persimmon in each direction. Evenly spaced hues stay lively without any one taking over.
Where Persimmon sits in the line
Persimmon arrived while Apricot was still in production, and is darker and more vivid than it - a clearly different glaze rather than a reformulation (ΔE 17.7). In 1995 it took the place of Lilac on the shelf. What else happened in 1995 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Persimmon. 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 Persimmon
27 colors were in production at the same time. The 10 nearest in the timeline: