Puce

Puce is a brownish purple color. The term comes from the French couleur puce, literally meaning "flea color". Puce became popular in the late 18th century in France. It appeared in clothing at the court of Louis XVI. The color was said to be a favourite color of Marie Antoinette; however, there are no portraits of her wearing it. Puce was also a popular fashion color in 19th-century Paris. In his novel Nana, Émile Zola describes a woman "dressed in a dark gown of an equivocal color, somewhere between puce and goose shit." In Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Mademoiselle Baptistine wears "a gown of puce-colored silk, of the fashion of 1806, which she had purchased at that date in Paris, and which had lasted ever since." In traditional Japanese iron work, bronze and copper are given a puce hue when coated in a solution of antimony trichloride dissolved in hydrochloric acid.