Pearl Gold
RAL 1036, a dark gold with a pearlescent finish, understated luxury
#877353rgb(135, 115, 83)hsl(37, 24%, 43%)hsv(37, 39%, 53%)cmyk(0%, 15%, 39%, 47%)#877353FFrgba(135, 115, 83, 1)hsla(37, 24%, 43%, 1)oklch(77.1%, 0.037, 83)lch(73.5%, 11.7, 119)🎨 Color Palettes
♿ WCAG Contrast Colors
Learn More →📊 Color Scales
💡 Use Cases
Whiskey Packaging
The Pearl Gold label on a bottle of top-tier single malt whiskey, on a matte black bottle, glimmers like a hearth fire in the dark night. The gift giver needs to say nothing; the recipient reads the price from the packaging alone.
Jewelry Craft
A Fabergé-style Pearl Gold enameled egg-shaped pendant requires a week of manual firing by a craftsman. The dark gold base, paired with diamond chip inlays, has its metallic dark luster flow with the wearer's steps under the evening party lights.
Byzantine Restoration
Restorers of the Hagia Sophia mosaics use Pearl Gold glass tesserae to complete the missing gold background. The newly added dark gold is almost indistinguishable from the thousand-year-old gold in candlelight.
Tea Room Screen Paintings
The Pearl Gold screen painting in a long-established Kyoto tea room is restored using the ancient Kanō school method. When the tea master prepares tea, the gold walls glow softly in the faint charcoal firelight—the ultimate expression of 'Yūgen' (subtle, profound beauty).
📜 Origin & History
Pearl Gold is the industrial color on the RAL chart closest to the hue of oxidized antique gold objects. When determining this color in the 1960s, the German automotive paint laboratory referenced the dark gold tone of medieval church gold leaf murals oxidized over centuries. They added mica particulates into a solid gold base to simulate that mellow, dark luster polished by time.
The gold mosaic murals of the Byzantine Empire are the artistic source of Pearl Gold. The dome mosaics of the Hagia Sophia were created by sandwiching gold leaf between pieces of glass. In the flickering candlelight, the gold leaf, refracted through the glass, emitted a subdued yet profound golden luster. Artisans called this effect 'the divine dark light,' meaning true sacredness is never blinding.
Japan's Azuchi-Momoyama period saw extensive use of a similar dark gold tone in screen paintings. Kanō Eitoku, in his screen paintings at the Jurakudai palace, covered entire walls with gold leaf, then outlined pines and bamboo in ink. The gold background was not dazzling but quietly reflected the dim light of the tea room. Sen no Rikyū later replaced gold walls with earthen walls, but the dark gold had already become the base color of Momoyama aesthetics.
In the 19th century, the Russian House of Fabergé used Pearl Gold in its jewelry craftsmanship. Carl Fabergé used multiple layers of enamel on his Easter eggs to fire a dark gold base, set with gemstones, presenting a deep metallic luster under candlelight. The first Fabergé egg Tsar Alexander III gave to the Tsarina was dominated by this kind of dark gold.
Contemporary luxury packaging uses Pearl Gold as a standard color for understated luxury. The limited-edition packaging of top-tier whiskey and perfume uses Pearl Gold hot stamping, presenting a subdued metallic sheen on matte paper. Designers call it 'gold for closed eyes'—it doesn't need to snatch attention; those who understand will stop for it.