Raspberry
Retired1997 · Color No. 4465
Introducing Raspberry, made by The Fiesta Tableware Company in December 1997. It's a rich and vibrant shade of red, reminiscent of ripe raspberries bursting with flavor. Raspberry adds a bold and energetic touch to any tablescape. Mix and match Raspberry with colors like White and Sunflower for a cheerful and festive table setting, or pair it with Slate and Plum for a sophisticated and elegant combination.
Production
Raspberry was retired in 1997, 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 Raspberry
Raspberry barely counts as a production color, and that's exactly why collectors care. In December 1997, to mark the 500 millionth piece of Fiesta made since 1936, the company produced just 500 Raspberry presentation bowls. That's the entire run. It's a deep, slightly purple red - much darker than any other Fiesta red, closer to Cinnabar than to Scarlet. Fifteen of the bowls were later donated to charity auctions in the Newell and East Liverpool area, raising over $75,000. If you own one, you own one of 500. Most collectors will never see one in person.
Using Raspberry on a table
Raspberry has enough color to be noticed without taking over, which makes it a good second or third piece - a salad plate or a serving bowl rather than the whole setting. Its mid lightness (L* 32) means most food reads against it without either washing out or vanishing. It separates strongly from a white cloth (8.6:1) 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 Raspberry in this guide's description of it.
Buy these to go with it
Raspberry was retired in 1997, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
Opposite on the wheel
Evergreen sits roughly opposite Raspberry in hue, which is the highest-contrast pairing the palette offers. The neutrals keep it from shouting.
All red
Every color here is from the red family, arranged light to dark. A single-family table reads calm and deliberate rather than busy.
- Rose, 1951-1959
- Scarlet
-
Your color Raspberry
Three-way split
Medium Green and Twilight sit about a third of the way around the color wheel from Raspberry in each direction. Evenly spaced hues stay lively without any one taking over.
- White
- Medium Green
-
Your color Raspberry
- Twilight
Where Raspberry sits in the line
Raspberry arrived while Rose, 1987-2005 was still in production, and is noticeably darker than it - a complete change of direction rather than a reformulation (ΔE 36.3). It was one of the shortest-lived colors in the line. In 1997 it arrived alongside Chartreuse, 1997-1999 and took the place of Sapphire on the shelf. What else happened in 1997 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Raspberry. 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 Raspberry
12 colors were in production at the same time. The 10 nearest in the timeline: