Thomas Dickey wrote about Re: xterm v. xterm-old:
:> gabriel rosenkoetter wrote about Re: xterm v. xterm-old:
:> :XTerm*Background: grey20
:> :XTerm*Foreground: grey80
:The class overrides because most of the colors use the Foreground class.
:I know about that, but it was part of the design that I inherited back in
:1996 - puzzling but not annoying enough to alter.

OK, then if someone has XTerm*Foreground then they also need to
include the other colours under the XTerm class, not the VT100 (sub?)class.
Well, it worked for me (in 88b, v132 & v150) to also add the following
if XTerm*Foreground is set.
!------------------------------------------------------------
XTerm*color0: black
XTerm*color1: red3
XTerm*color2: green3
XTerm*color3: yellow3
XTerm*color4: blue3
XTerm*color5: magenta3
XTerm*color6: cyan3
XTerm*color7: gray90
XTerm*color8: gray30
XTerm*color9: red
XTerm*color10: green
XTerm*color11: yellow
XTerm*color12: blue
XTerm*color13: magenta
XTerm*color14: cyan
XTerm*color15: white
XTerm*colorUL: yellow
XTerm*colorBD: white
!------------------------------------------------------------

Regards,
-- 
Geoff Wing : <gcw@pobox.com>
Rxvt Stuff : <gcw@rxvt.org>
Zsh Stuff  : <gcw@zsh.org>