Colors with Undefined Names

99. Zaffre Color 1034 - #0014A8

Zaffre, a pre-scientific substance (see List of alchemical substances), is a deep blue pigment obtained by roasting cobalt ore, and is made of either an impure form of cobalt oxide or impure cobalt arseniate. During the Victorian Era, zaffre was used to prepare smalt and stain glass blue. The first recorded use of zaffre as a color name in English was sometime in the 1550s (exact year uncertain).

Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal. Cobalt is the active center of coenzymes called cobalamins, the most common example of which is vitamin B12. As such it is an essential trace dietary mineral for all animals. Cobalt in inorganic form is also an active nutrient for bacteria, algae and fungi.