Red
Retired1936-1943
Introduced at the annual Pottery and Glass Exhibit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January 1936 - meet Red. One of the original colors of Fiesta drawn up by Frederick Hurten Rhead himself - Red is a stunning color sure to add a pop to every table.
Production
Red was retired in 1943, 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 Red
This is the one everybody asks about. Fiesta Red was in the very first lineup at the Pittsburgh show in January 1936, and it's the color that made the line famous - a genuinely loud orange-red at a time when most American dinnerware was white or pastel. It's also the reason vintage Fiesta has a reputation it can't quite shake: the glaze used uranium oxide, and in 1943 the government requisitioned the country's uranium supply for the war effort. Red went off the shelf and stayed off for sixteen years. It came back in 1959 with a reformulated glaze. If you own a piece and you're wondering: pre-1943 Red is the one people mean when they talk about it.
Using Red on a table
Red 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* 44) means most food reads against it without either washing out or vanishing. It separates strongly from a white cloth (5.5:1) 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.
Buy these to go with it
Red was retired in 1943, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
Opposite on the wheel
Evergreen sits roughly opposite Red 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
-
Your color Red, 1936-1943
- Claret
Three-way split
Forest Green and Sapphire sit about a third of the way around the color wheel from Red in each direction. Evenly spaced hues stay lively without any one taking over.
- White
-
Your color Red, 1936-1943
- Sapphire
- Forest Green
Next-door hues
These sit within about 55° of Red on the color wheel. Neighboring hues blend instead of competing, which suits a table you want to feel warm rather than sharp.
- Rose, 1951-1959
- Antique Gold
-
Your color Red, 1936-1943
- Chocolate
Where Red sits in the line
Red was the first red Fiesta made; 9 more have followed it. In 1936 it arrived alongside Blue (Cobalt), Green (Light), Old Ivory and Yellow, 1936-1969. What else happened in 1936 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Red. 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 Red
5 colors were in production at the same time: