Russet
Russet is a coarse cloth made of wool and dyed with woad and madder to give it a subdued grey or brown shade. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were required to wear russet or cheap blanket. Humble squires and priests, such as Franciscans wore russet as a sign of humility but preferred a good quality russet such as that made in Colchester, which was better than the cheapest cloth. The medieval poem Piers Plowman describes the virtuous Christian:
The ballad Of Patient Grissel and a Noble Marquess which was retold as Pamela, has the heroine's aristocratic clothes of silk and velvet contrasted with her "country russet" which again signifies rustic virtue. Oliver Cromwell wrote "I had rather have a plain russet-coated Captain ...than that which you call a Gentleman and is nothing else."
See also
References
Russet (disambiguation)
Russet is a coarse woolen cloth of grey or brown. It may also refer to
Russet (color)
Russet is a dark brown color with a reddish-orange tinge. As a tertiary color, russet is an equal mix of orange and purple pigments.
The first recorded use of russet as a color name in English was in 1562.
The source of this color is the The ISCC-NBS Method of Designating Colors and a Dictionary of Color Names (1955) used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps.
The name of the color derives from russet, a coarse cloth made of wool and dyed with woad and madder to give it a subdued grey or reddish-brown shade. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were required to wear russet.
Russet, a color of autumn, is often associated with sorrow or grave seriousness. Anticipating a lifetime of regret, Shakespeare's character Biron says in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene 1: "Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd / In russet yeas and honest kersey noes."
The color is mentioned in a famous quote taken from a letter Oliver Cromwell wrote to Sir William Spring in September 1643: "I had rather have a plain, russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, [than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else]".
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