Interestingly, the AIS decided to overhaul the old Color Classification Chart from the earliest checklist in 1929. I am guessing that as the 40’s rolled around it was getting quite difficult to select a color classification for iris that were becoming increasingly diverse in color and pattern.
So for the two decades, the years 1950 through 1969, a new color chart was officially adopted by the AIS.
The background color of the standards determines the color classification. Two color symbols used together designate a mixed color effect; e.g, BV for violet-blue; OR for orange-red.In the 1959 checklist, there was further explanation that the exception to the ‘background color’ rule was the plicata when the ground color is taken to be the predominate and governing color. Later an additional color classification was added, RV (red-violet) to the list of colors and color descriptions.
Letters can be placed after the color symbol to imply color saturation. The original set is as follows : P for pale, L for light, F for full, D for deep or dark. Later the combination DD was added.
Interestingly, plicatas were noted to have additional letters after the color classification yet were not any of the designated symbols described. For instance Stepping Out is described as W2V which I am taking to mean White plicata Violet marking. Newport and Rococo are described as W2B which I am taking to mean White plicata with Blue marking.
Be that as it may, by the 1979 checklist, I could find no mention of a color chart, nor were any iris described with a color classification. I am sure there is something written in an AIS journal to explain what transpired to erase Color Charts from AIS descriptions for newly introduced iris. Perhaps increased use of good photography along with an exploding array of colors doomed the Color Classification Chart to obsolescence.
Below you will find this short lived second version of the color chart. Consider this a stepping stone between the very rigid and sometimes inscrutable Original Color Chart from 1929 and the freely constructed and colorful (excuse the pun!) narrative descriptions of iris color we find in checklists today.
