sableness

Johannesburg we were greatly surprised to find near each successive mine crowds of natives all with apparently well oiled faces that literally shone in the sunlight; but natives of every conceivable shade of sableness, and in some cases of almost every permissible approach to nudity.

With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back Edward P. Lowry

She was not less than ladylike in self-possession, but Mr. Wyvern's towering sableness clearly awed her a little.

Demos George Gissing 1880