France What Is A Metallique Color?

Can anyone give me clue as to what Maury means when it refers to a "metallique" color? In what way does a "metallique bleu" look different than a "bleu?" Thanks.

I'd assume that the blue appears to have a metallic sheen, distinguishing it from a straight blue. Which stamp is it?

There are quite a few pre-1940 stamps that Maury describes as "metallique" blue, green, etc. I was wondering how to discern a metallic stamp.

Pick one, please. Number and year. I have Maury and a few other France catalogues. I'm willing to take a look.

I'll give you a couple of examples shortly.

Thanks NSK, I appreciate the response but that doesn't really help. I'm not quite sure what the difference is from the photos in the screengrab.

These are a bright blue, blue, dark blue, and metallic blue examples of the same stamp.

This is the problem with many 'shades.' There is no good manner in which to show them other than relative to each other, The names are assigned to a certain hue.Different catalogue editors, especially when from another country, assign different names to the same hue.

When something is metallic, we now associate it with shiny metallic lacquers of cars. In the past, it was a colour associated with a metal.

Cjd, I appreciate any help you can offer. Here are a couple of examples from 1938: Maury 362/bleu-vert metallique; and 372/bleu vif met. From 1939: 414A/bleu met.; 432/vert met.

I also offer this, though I suspect it's something different: 1938, Maury 393/"impression metallique."

Any help at clarification would be appreciated, though ideally I'd like to be taught to fish, as the Biblical saying goes. Thanks.

NSK, Now we're getting somewhere. That's interesting. So what you're saying is that when the French refer to something as "vert metallique" they're referencing a color that they associate with a greenish metal? So in order to "see" the color, I'd have to know what they're referencing.

That 414A should be the rightmost of the four stamp in the image I posted.



Maybe someone with an Yvert or Maury catalogue can tell you if it means as stamp printed with a metallic lacquer, but, normally, these are purely the names of hues.



Examples of hues that have a metal reference I have come across are chrome yellow, bronze, silver, gold, and steel blue. I do not think holding a sheet of steel next to a blue stamp will allow you to identify it, nor will an Olympic medal look anywhere near the stamp colours.
Most of the British stamps that use bronze, silver, and gold make sense when you see them, but if there is another 'shade' you will wonder why one is called gold and the other yellowish brown.

Is there a source with English equivalents of the metallique shades?

Scott, consistently, calls British stamps purple that are lilac (the pigment was lilac),

If two English-language catalogues cannot agree on a colour, you may expect that translating foreign catalogues will not give you any certainty that you are talking the same colour.

NSK- I don't want to tax your patience on this subject but what I'm trying to figure out is how to identify these colors. When Maury lists a color as pale vert, vert, and vert fonce, I understand these to be green with less black in the ink, green, green with more black in the ink. That's easy to see if you have enough examples to compare. In the case of "metallique" I don't have a clue what to look for.

NSK- I took another look at the screen grab you uploaded. What it appears is that the metallic blue is a bright dark blue. Would that be your assessment?

That, already, will not hold as a rule. The mix is not always what determines 'shades.' The dark and light hues, often result from the amount of ink deposited, not from adding black or white. A colour 'deep blue' often is exactly that: deep engraving. As I understand, these are surface-printed stamps. So, the depth of engraving, probably, is not the cause.




I am tempted to describe what I see in that way.

There, however, is a big but: I cannot tell if this is the true colour. What you see online, likely, is not what it looks like. Somewhere, I posted screen prints of two stamps from a single block of stamps that Stanley Gibbons offered at the same time on its website. The colours were very different. At best, you can see how the colours compare to each other. But that only works if they were scanned together. Otherwise, all bets are off.
You can search this forum for discussions on colours ('shades') to see what problems occur.
If stamps are used, it becomes even harder to be certain.

There is a site called GermanStamps.net which is a great source to get an idea of different shades of German stamps. Do you know of anything like that for French stamps?