text:
1. ABNEY, CAPTAIN W. DE W. Colour measurement and mixture. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1891
First edition. Deals with the measurement of the spectrum, and with new methods of experimenting, e.g. (1) the heating effect; (2) the luminosity and (3) the chemical effect on various salts of the different rays of the spectrum. Abney was an excellent scientist "to whom we are indebted for much of the most valuable work in the field of photo-chemistry, spectroanalysis, and photography." - Eder, Hist. of photography, p. 455. See also the Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Not in the Birren Catalogue.
8vo, orig. cloth. 207+(vi) pp. with 45 text illus. Excellent copy.
2. ALBERS, JOSEF. Interaction of color. Unabridged text and selected plates. Revised edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975
A modern classic in the literature of color. Originally published in a limited boxed edition in 1963, "this masterwork of one of the most influential teacher-artists of the twentieth century was conceived as a guide and teaching aid for artists, instructors and students." The original edition is now worth several thousand dollars; this edition has the same text but fewer plates.
8vo, orig. color printed wrappers. x+81+1 pp. with scattered text illus and diagrams and 10 color plates.
3. AMERICAN OPTICAL CO. Pseudo-Isochromatic plates for testing color perception. [Philadelphia & New York: Beck Engraving Co], 1940
A series of plates of letters and numbers made of colored dots against closely colored backgrounds intended to test for color blindness. Carefully and beautifully printed by the Beck Engraving Co. with inks from International Printing Ink Div. of Interchemical Corp. A pamphlet of explanatory text accompanies the series of plates. Comments on similar color-blindness testing aids are given by Professor Herbert in the Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, pp. 21-2.
Tall 8vo, orig. printed board flaps. 22 flaps each with 2 color plates. 11 page explanatory pamphlet.
4. ARALDO, SICILLO. Trattato de I colori nelle arme. Venetia: Domenico Nicolino, 1565
First edition. A very early treatise on the colors of coats of arms, and as such a branch of the large category of artists' manuals. There was a later edition of this work published in Venice 1606 (see Cicognara 178). Of this edition the NUC locates only one copy (Oberlin College). According to the NUC there were later editions in 1593 and 1595.
Small 8vo, 17th full polished calf, gilt spine. 35 leaves paginated on the rectos only. Bound with Occolti and Pellegrino, both of which are catalogued separately.
5. ARCLAIS DE MONTAMY [DIDIER D']. TraitÇ des couleurs pour la peinture en Çmail et sur la porcelaine. Paris: G. Cavalier, 1765.
Originally published 1758. "D'Arclais was one of the best chemists of his time. The recipies contained in his book are few in number, but they are all the result of his own practical experiments. He discovered the preparation of a bright red obtained from iron, and he describes the process with great accuracy. Although he was not a professional painter, his advice for painting in vitrifiable colours, which is correct and clear, could not have been better expressed by a practical man." - Solon, p. 7. Duncan, 329. Manning no. 7 ("In the introductory pages...artists are warned that if they do not succeed in preparing the colors of M. de Montamy, or in employing them, it will be their own fault!). UCBA, I, col 39 noting a German edition of 1767. This copy is in the original binding, worn, but with nice stamps on the spine, and quite charming in spite of the condition. We have preserved it as is in a custom-made box. Well represented in institutional holdings (NUC: 15) but scarce in the marketplace.
12mo, original full calf, head and tail of spine chipped, hinges cracked. lii+287 pp. Preserved in a drop-back box with morocco label.
6. ARISTOTELES. De Coloribus libellus. Florence: L. Torrentini, 1548
First edition of one of the earliest printed books on color, the translation and commentary by Simone Porzio. A very important work in the literature of the Aristotelian legacy on color science; this is given a good analysis by Martin Kemp in The Science of Art, p. 264. "The scattered fragments of Aritotle's views on color and those of his immediate circle are to be found in a number of the authentic works, most notably in...a treatise once attributed to him, De Coloribus, now more generaly assigned to his follower, Theophrastus...The implied scale of light to dark colours, reflecting the white-black ratios in their mixture, proved to be the most fruitful of these ideas, and was actively promoted by a number of Renaissance theorists. Portius's commentary on De Coloribus, published in Florence in 1548, graded colors according to the extent which they 'shine', or, as we would say, according to their luminosity. Yellow stands at the most luminous end of the scale, while violet 'shines' less than any of the other less intermediate colors." Kemp goes on to give a fascinating analysis of this work together with other Renaissance color theorists. In this Editio Princeps the Greek text is here accompanied by the Latin version and commentary of the Neapolitan physician and philosopher Simone Porzio (1497-1554), who two years later was inspired to publish his own treatise on an aspect of the subject: De coloribus Oculorum - the two works are in fact still occasionally confused. A very handsomely produced volume, marked by the typographical elegance characteristic of Torrentino editions. Cranz [Bib. of Aristotle's works], 108. Hoffman, I, 289 ("Rare and very important"); Adams P.1958.
4to, later (late 18th-early 19th century) paste paper boards, vellum spine. 197+1 pp. Old stain in lower blank margins of last third of book. [Bound as prelminary matter to this volume is the treatise by Telesius; see under Telesius].
7. BACON, J. The theory of colouring: being an analysis of the principles of contrast and harmony in the arrangement of colours with their application to the study of nature, and hints on the composition of pictures, etc. London: Geo. Rowney & Co., 1866
First edition. This was an important and long popular manual. Robert Herbert comments: "In the next generation of British wrtiers, one continues to feel a modern sense of color that is usually regarded as a prerogative of French Impressionists. The manual by Bacon stresses binary and triadic color harmonies unencumbered by the long disquisitions on aesthetics that mark most French treatises, and its plates, although in rather conservative figurative imagery, show color opposites directly opposed, and three color harmonies, that look forward to Neo-Impressionism and Fauvism." - Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, p. 14. Birren Collection 23.
8vo, orig. blue cloth, gilt, a.e.g. viii51+41 pp of illus. ads with 6 chromolitho plates. and one wood-engr. illus. Bit of wear to tail of spine.
8. BAHR, JOHANN KARL. Vortrage uber Newton's und Gothe's Farbenlehre gehalten im Kunstler-Verein zu Dresden. Dresden: Woldemar Turk, 1863
First edition, an untrimmed and unopened copy in the original printed wrappers. A mid-nineteenth century critical study of the color theory of Newton and Goethe. Bahr (1801-1869) studied art at the famous academy in Dresden, went to Italy where he met Thorwaldsen and Koch, both of whom influenced him. He took a second trip to Italy after his wife's death in 1834 at which time he met Corneilus, Reinhart and Vernet. A much sought after portraitist (he painted Caspar David Friedrich, his fellow artist, in 1836) and history painter of the German-Roman school, he settled permanently in Dresden where he became professor at the Academy of Fine Arts. In addition to his color studies he became an important Dante scholar and did work as well in archaeology and natural sciences. He was a correspondent with the "University zu New-York" (probably Columbia). Rare.
8vo, orig. printed wraps (spine mended). iv+161(iii) pp with 1 double-p. engr. plate. Untrimmed and unopened. A few chips to rear wrapper.
9. BANCROFT, EDWARD. Experimental researches concerning the philosophy of permanent colours; and the best means of producing them by dyeing, callico printing, &c. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1814
Originally published London, 1794, in one volume; this is the first American edition, reprinted from the second [London] edition containing the original volume one with added notes and an additional volume. Thus it is the best edition. It is a famous book in the literature of colours and dyeing and is no 10 on Sidney Edelstein's list of "The Thirteen Keys" (Historical notes on the wet processing industry, 1972) and the only book on the list written by an American. Born in Westfield, Mass, in 1744, Bancroft had a fascinating career as a scientist and also as a spy during the Revolutionary War both for and against America (see DAB; see also Edelstein, "The dual life of Edward Bancroft" in the work cited above). His book was "...a great contribution...his thoughts and research methods are as reasonable and as practical as the best we use today." (Edelstein).
Shaw-Shoemaker 30738. Kress B. 6259. Bolton, I, p. 280 (this edition). Rink 1851. Ron 67 - "It is a serious scientific contribution to the subject many years in advance of its time." Lawrie 26 and 27 citing other editions (including one in German, 1817-18). Partington III, 515-516.
2 vols. 8vo, recent half calf, antique. xlv+401+ii and 394 pp. Old faint lib. blindstamp on t.p. of vol I. Browned as usual.
10. BARNARD, GEORGE. The theory and practice of landscape painting in water colours. Illustrated by a series of twenty-four designs, coloured diagrams, and numerous woodcuts; with two extra plates on simultaneous contrasts. London: Wm. S. Orr & Co., 1855
First and much the best edition of this long popular work, almost entirely devoted to the subject of color. "A tour-de-force of Leighton's colour printing. It contains 24 full page color plates by Leighton Brothers, of such variety that together they make of the book a kind of manual of color printing. In instructing beginning watercolorists, Barnard here showed the successive states of producing a drawing; at the same time this illustration showed the successive stages of printing a color plate. Among other prints in the book are some excellent examples of Leighton's new method of coloring with relief metal plates. There are also a number of interesting studies in color juxtaposition. The volume is remarkable for the continued brilliancy of its colored inks. The printing, on the other hand, seems to have been carelessly executed, so that the overall quality of each plate is lower than what one generally expects from Leighton." - J. Friedman, Color printing in England, no. 83. Abbey, Life, no. 94. McLean, VBD, p. 192. Not in the Birren Catalogue.
4to,orig. half polished red calf, highly gilt spine. vi+176 pp. with 24 color plates, each with dust sheet. Light stain to the outer corner of frontisp and a few other plates but a very nice copy.
11. BEAUDENEAU, JULIE. Harmonie des couleurs. Paris: Dunod, 1940
First edition, author's presentation copy inscribed: "A Madame Clement Carpeaux affecteux souvenir de l'auteur, Julie Beaudeneau, Nice, Avril 1945." The author was an officer of public instruction and winner of a medal of honour from the Societe Industrielle de Mulhouse. Ingerand, Bib de la couleur, no. 333. Not in the Birren Catalogue.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers in glassine. viii+49+1 pp. with 4 color plates hors texte on coated stock and 25 text illus.
12. BEAUMONT, ROBERTS. Colour in woven design, being a treatise on the science and technology of textile colouring (woollen, worsted, cotton and silk materials). Second edition, rewritten and enlarged, with numerous additional original illustrations. London & New York: Whittaker & Co., 1912
Originally published 1890. The author claims this to be "the first treatise published professing to treat exclusively of the colouring of woven styles." The color plates are unusual and are noted in the preface: "It need scarcely be observed that the coloured illustrations are unique, being exact representations of the woven textures." They are in fact color halftones of close-up photographs of woven textiles showing the colors and textures. Birren Catalogue 29 (this edition).
8vo, orig. cloth. xxiv+372 pp. with 39 colored plates containing 197 illus and 280 figures in the text.
13. BEDDARD, FRANK E. Animal coloration, an account of the principal facts and theories relating to the colours and markings of animals. Second edition. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., New York: McMillan,
First published 1892. Written for a lay audience but presenting some facts and theories which had not hitherto been published in popular form (the theories of Dr. Eisig and M. Stolzmann). The color lithographic plates of animals in habitats are charming. Not in the Birren Collection.
8vo, recent cloth. viii+288 pp. with 36 wood-engr. illus and 4 color litho plates.
14. BENEDIKT, R. The chemistry of the coal tar colours. Translated from the German of R. B. and edited, with additions, by E. Knecht. Second edition, revised and enlarged. London: George Bell & Sons, 1889
The first English edition was 1886. An uncommon book, not in the very complete Edelstein collection. A volume in Bell's series of "Technological handbooks". Lawrie 43.
8vo, orig. cloth. xii+333+23 pp. Inner hinges weak.
15. BENSON, WILLIAM. Manual of the science of colour on the true theory of the colour-sensations and the natural system. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871
Only edition, a fine copy. Less common than Benson's Principles of colour both of these works are serious contributions to the literature of color theory and they are the only books written by Benson. The frontispiece to the present work (the colour-cube) is carefully hand colored. Wurmfeld, Color documents, includes Benson's Principles with a good note. Birren Collection 33.
8vo, cont full crushed red morocco, the arms of Queen Victoria on cover. xii+58+1 pp. with hand-col frontisp., 4 text illus and one striking black and white litho plate.
16. BENSON, WILLIAM. Principles of the science of colour concisely stated to aid and promote their useful application in the decorative arts. London: Chapman & Hall, 1868 - (1876)
First edition, second issue, of this elegant and unusual book. "Benson, an architect, published his unique cube-shaped color solid in 1868. Benson's cube model stands on end with a black to white vertical axis...Benson's elegant diagrams, along with hand-colored plates, show how the cube may be sliced to reveal the colors that form the interior. He cites Mayer, Runge, and Chevreul as sources for his theories, but criticizes Field as being "too hasty." - Color documents, no. 27. Professor Herbert also comments on the book: "Author's color standard based on a cube tipped on a point, and incorporating the then recent theories of Maxwell and Helmholtz." ("A color bibliography, II" in Yale Library Gazette, 1977, p. 143). There were two issues of the first edition of this book; the first had hand colored plates; the second, as here, is identified by an inserted leaf of text, pp. vii/viii, "Advertisement to the issue of 1876." The color plates in this issue are the same as in the first except that instead of being hand colored they are made of circular colored paper samples mounted by hand (see Herbert's description). Birren Catalogue no. 34.
4to, orig. cloth, roan spine. x+48 pp with 6 litho uncol plates, 4 text illus (of which 2 hand-colored) and 5 plates with mounted colored circle patterns. Light foxing on a few of the plate, but a fine absolutely complete copy.
17. BINDER, JOSEPH. Colour in advertising. London & New York: The Studio, 1934
First edition; a very handsome book. Illustrated with 26 full color tipped in plates, very much in the style of the thirties. Includes the work of important graphic and commercial artists, including Purvis, Alexeieff, Jean Dupas, E. McKnight Kauffer, Joseph Binder, etc. Originals of the plates were posters, showcards, booklet covers, menu covers, fashion drawings, a trade sign, a color photograph, etc. The text discusses the law of color, color harmony and the poster, prismatic color, etc. etc. Examples were selected from the best work in "Modern Publicity."
4to, orig. cloth. Unpaginated (ca 130 pp) with t.p. in red and black. With 26 tipped in color plates and 3 tipped in color text illus. Small area of paper stuck to the rear cover (removable).
18. BIRREN, FABER. The Buckeye Cover color guide. Effective color schemes from ten standardized inks with a practical discussion of color harmony by Faber Birren. Hamilton, Ohio: Beckett Paper Co., 1933
Fine absolutely complete copy of papermaker's sample book with with an introductory essay by Birren. Inside the rear cover are sample booklets of Buckeye cover and Buckeye text as well as Becket cover and Becket text. Not at all common, this is not included in the extensive list of Birren titles in the Birren Catalogue.
4to, orig. stiff card color printed wrappers. 8+4 pp with 26 ff of color cover stock samples, all printed in colors.
19. BIRREN, FABER. The Birren color equation. Chicago: The Crimson Press, 1934
"A modern psychological approach to color...sets forth a practical equation that has universal application to all arts and industries utilizing color in any medium. It is a workable instrument, not a theory..." Includes a brief essay: "The six modern dimensions of color harmony." Uncommon; not the the Birren Catalogue.
8vo, stiff card, folded to 3 panels (6 sides) with 2 color printed diagrams. In orig. printed envelope.
20. BIRREN, FABER. Color dimensions. Creating new principles of color harmony and a practical equation in color definition. Chicago: The Crimson Press, 1934
First edition of the author's second book. Birren (1900-1988) was an eminent scholar, author, and historian, known for his work in the area of human responses to color, with special focus on color preferences and the functional uses of color for improved productivity and safety in industry. Birren became an authority on visual, physiological, and psychological reactions to color. He was the author of over 25 books. His major collection of books on color was given to Yale. See Hope & Walsh, The color compendium, p. 41.
4to, orig. moire weave linen, spine faded, but an appealing binding. vi+58 pp with 29 text illus and 2 fdg. color plates printed on coated stock.
21. BIRREN, FABER. The printer's art of color. A comprehensive treatise defining those principles of color harmony that relate specifically to the craft of printing. Chicago: Crimson Press, 1935
First edition. Principles of color for printers differ from the color laws of the artist, the interior decorator or the textile weaver. Legibility must always be dominant. Birren Catalogue 71.
8vo, orig. silk cloth. 34+1 pp. with 14 text illus and 1 color plate.
22. BIRREN, FABER. Functional color. A book of facts and research meant to inspire more rational methods in the solution of color problems. New York: The Crimson Press, 1937
First edition. "The first book of its kind ever written - a compilation of practical facts about color that are of interest to the artist, designer, interior decorator, architect, and all who use color artistically, commercially or scientifically." - d.j. Birren Cat., 63.
8vo, orig. cloth in d.w. 124+(2) pp with 6 plates hors texte of which 3 are in color and occas text illus.
23. BIRREN, FABER. Monument to color. New York: McFarlane Warde McFarlane, 1938
First edition. Of all the books by Mr. Birren, this is the most spectacular. The plates are a tour de force of color printing (by the Hurst Engraving Co., Rochester); they must be seen. Birren Collection 68.
Large 4to, orig. cloth, spine faded. 97+1 pp with color frontisp, 31 text illus (some full page) and 16 color plates each with dust sheet. Occasional underlining in pencil.
24. BIRREN, FABER. Selling with color. New York: McGraw Hill, 1945
First edition. A work "written to be of practical benefit to modern business, to assure the effective development of consumer products, merchandising, advertising, packages and displays." Birren Cat., 74.
8vo, orig. cloth. x+244 pp. with numerous charts, graphs and illus.
25. BIRREN, FABER. Your color and your self. The significance of color preference in the study of human personality. Sandusky Ohio: Prang Co., 1952
First edition, signed by the author. Deals with the emotional significance of color. Birren Catalogue 80.
8vo, orig. boards, cloth spine. 124 pp.
26. BIRREN, FABER. New horizons in color. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp, 1955
First edition. How to use color more effectively in architecture and decoration. Of special interest are the two plates containing 44 color chips (functional colors, machinery colors, safety and identification colors and decorative colors). Birren Collection 69.
4to, orig. cloth. viii+200 pp. with over 150 illus, 6 color plates and 2 plates of color chips.
27. BIRREN, FABER. Color, form and space. New York: Reinhold Publishing Co., 1961
First edition. Color for architects. "The elemental, integral place of color in three-dimensional constructions...this book will show you color as a building material more marvelous and malleable than any other." - d. j. Birren catalogue 51.
4to, orig. cloth. 128 pp. with24 color plates and 90 text illus.
28. BIRREN, FABER. Creative color. New York: Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1961
First edition. In this book "his original contribution is the development of a new "band" of color effects that are immediately applicable in such fields as commercial art, package design, ceramic and textile design." Birren Catalogue 60.
4to, orig. cloth in d.w. 128 pp with 30 color plates and numerous text illus.
29. BIRREN, FABER. Color, a survey in words and pictures, from ancient mysticism to modern science. New York: University Books, 1963
First edition. According to Hope & Walsh, The compendium of color (1990) this is one of the two most important books by Birren (the other being his The history of color in painting, q.v.). Birren catalogue 46.
4to, orig. cloth in orig. slipcase, a fine copy. 223 pp. with numerous illus.
30. BIRREN, FABER. Color psychology and color therapy. A factual study of the influence of color on human life. New York: University Books, 1965
Originally published 1950. The text is arranged in four sections: historical, biological, psychological and visual. Birren Collection 56.
8vo, orig. cloth. ix+284+ii pp. with 22 pages of halftones from photos on coated paper.
31. BIRREN, FABER. History of color in painting. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1965
First edition. A standard and important work, especially for its detailed, comparative study of old and recent color systems and its presentation of artists palettes. The latter are shown in two plates with 83 mounted color chips showing traditional pigments, the balanced palette, and the palettes of DaVinci, El Greco, Rembrandt, Turner and the Impressionists. Birren Collection 65.
Lg. 4to, orig. cloth in d.w. 304 pp. with over 500 illus and 2 plates with 83 mounted color chips.
32. BIRREN, FABER. Principles of color. A review of past traditions and modern theories of color harmony. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1969
First edition. A book for beginners "seeking a thorough grounding in the comprehension and solution of color problems, and for mature artists and teachers interested in keeping abreast of recent findings and conclusions." - d.j. Herbert, "A Color Biblography II", p. 145; Birren catalogue 70.
Square 8vo, orig. cloth in d.w. 96 pp. with 56 illus and 8 color plates.
33. BIRREN, FABER. Color & human response. Aspects of light and color bearing on the reactions of living things and the welfare of human beings. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1978
First edition. "Packed with engaging factual (and hypothetical) observations on the influences of color in life. Historical references as well as the latest scientific data..." - d.j. Birren Catalogue 47.
8vo, orig. cloth in d.w. 141 pp. with 16 b/w plates and 8 color plates and scattered drawings in the text.
34. BIRREN, FABER. Faber Birren collection of books on color. Art and Architecture Library, Yale University. A bibliography. New Haven: Yale Univ. Library, 1982
A checklist, arranged alphabetically, 673 titles. There is also a useful subject key in which the topics are arranged by letter. There are publications on scientific theory, and specialized bibliographies, but the collection's major holdings are books and publications on color theory, color techniques, artist's manuals and treatises, perception, vision, psychology, printing and the graphic arts, textiles, music, religion, biology, medicine, heraldry and the occult.
4to, orig. printed wraps. 42 pp.
35. BLANC, CHARLES. The grammar of painting and engraving translated from the French of Blanc's Grammaire des arts du dessin by Kate Newell Doggett. Third edition. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co., 1879 An important book. "Originally published 1867, as Grammaire des art du dessin. Although not so stated, the final third only of the original treatise, the best known statement of the Beaux Arts aesthetic, incorporating a clear definition of optical mixing of colors based on Chevreul and Delacroix". - Herbert, "A color bibliog.", Yale Lib. Gazette, July 1974, p. 31. Birren Collection 83. Color Documents no. 33.
8vo, orig. dec. cloth, a nice copy. xx+330 pp. with 42 wood-engr. illus. and colour frontisp.
36. BOIGEY, MAURICE. La science des couleurs et l'art du peintre. Preface de J. F. Bouchor. Paris: Librairie Felix Alcan, 1923
First edition. An uncommon book written for painters, critics and "gens du monde." Includes an interesting chapter, "Les Daltoniens," referring to a little known episode in the history of color. The famous English chemist John Dalton (1766-1844) was able to see little or no red (on this see Sherman, Colour vision in the 19th century, pp. 175-6); Boigey states that there were large numbers of people with this problem and calls them "Daltoniens", presumably a synonym for what we today call color blind. Not in the Birren Collection. NUC locates five copies.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers, untrimmed. (vi)+vi+176 pp. with 18 plates (uncolored line illus). Very good copy.
37. BOUMA, DR. P. J. Physical aspects of colour. An introduction to the scientific study of colour stimuli and colour sensations. Eindhoven: Philips Industries, 1947
First edition. "Collects in book form the accumulated knowledge in the field of colorimetry and colour science." Includes a chapter on the historical development of colour science with sections on the pre-Newtonian era; Newton, Goethe, Young, Grassman, Maxwell; Helmholtz, Konig, Ostwald, Munsell, etc. Curiously he omits any mention of Chevreul. Includes the large folding color plate in the pocket inside rear cover. Birren Catalogue 89.
8vo, orig. cloth. 312 pp. with 113 text illus and large fdg color plate in pocket. Small number in ink at the base of the spine.
38. [BOUTET, CLAUDE]. TraitÇ de mignature pour apprendre aisÇment a peindre sans maitre, avec le secret de faire les plus belles couleurs, l'or bruny, & l'or en coquille. Troisiäme edition, reveue, corrigÇe & augxmentÇe par l'autheur. Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1696
Anything on the subject of colour before 1700 is extremely hard to find. Originally published Paris 1674, there were very many later editions. This edition has substantially more pages than any of the other editions for which we have references. The text stresses pigment and color recipes (most of the book is devoted to them) but there are also sections on drawing, use of the compass, preparation of vellum, etc. Prof. Herbert comments on this book, stating "It consists largely of recipes for pigment mixtures and, typically of seventeenth century manuals, these are subordinated to the images the painter creates. One finds advice on pigments for tan architecture, red drapery, blue skies, rather than on the colors themselves." Massing 16 listing 26 editions or printings and she states that the "above list is undoubtedly uncomplete." Birren catalogue 92.
12mo, old calf, hinges cracked. (xvi)+166+(x) pp with one wood-cut text illus.
39. BRADLEY, MILTON. Elementary color. With an introduction by Henry Lefavour, Professor of Physics, Williams College. Springfield, Mass: M. B. Co., 1895
Originally published 1895, this the third edition. Includes an extensive section of practical experiments with color. Professor Herbert has pointed out that these "object lessons", form and color exercises, reappeared later in the Bauhaus, and the transfer from children's instruction to art schools (via such educators as Franz Cizek and Adolf Hoelzel) is attracting a growing number of historians of modern art. (Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, pp. 22-23.) The frontispiece to the present work is a marvel of handwork; it is a series of two miniature color charts, side by side, of pure spectrum scales and broken spectrum scales, both made from the Bradley Educational Colored Papers. Together the two charts contain 126 individually mounted small squares of papers. Birren Collection 98.
8vo, orig. cloth. (iv)+132 pp with 64 text illus and frontisp as described above.
40. BREWSTER, SIR DAVID. A treatise on optics. London: Longmans, &c., 1831
First edition. This was an important work in the literature of color theory, especially as it influenced the painter Turner. "Brewster was one of the theorists who was advocating an alternative to the Newtonian system. His main importance for Turner was that he provided the artist with a fully scientific argument for the three primaries, and he did this from a standpoint of admiration for Newton rather than from crude anti-Newtonianism. Brewster's writings, particularly his Optics (1831), contained a sustained, considerable and highly influential challenge to Newton's conception of colour..." (Kemp, The science of art, pp. 300-301). See also DSB. Not in the Birren catalogue.
12mo, orig. cloth, paper label on spine, spine soiled but a good copy. 383 pp. with 176 text illus.
41. BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL. The British Colour Council dictionary of colour standards. Adopted by the British Standards Institution. London: B.C.C., 1934
First edition. An interesting and uncommon color standard, described by Professor Herbert: "The cost of hand-produced color charts was so great that industrial processes took over most book production by the 1920s. Occasionally one still feels close ties to older traditions, however. The British Colour Council dictionary of colour standards (1934) is rendered in silk ribbons, and the edition of 1952 in woolen yarns, preserving something of the nineteenth-century tradition of illustrating books with actual samples of woven and printed cloths, as well as of the constituient threads. The advantage of actual cloth or thread to the historian, let alone to the contemporary user, is the greater permanency of the colour and proof of the nature and quality of the material." - Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, p. 11. Birren Catalogue 101.
8vo, orig. publisher's cloth. The 220 silk ribbons mounted on accordian folding cards. Each color is named as well as given the B.C.C. code number.
42. BRONGNIART, ALEX. Coloring and decoration of ceramic ware. With notes and additions by Alphonse Salvetat. Translated from the French by Geo. M. J. Ashby. Chicago: Windsor & Kenfield Pub. Co., 1898
Brongniart was perhaps the single most important writer of the entire 19th century on the subject of ceramics; this is the first translation of any significant part of his work into English. The entire book is devoted to the coloring of ceramics; it is an excellent example of technical color literature - as opposed to color science or color theory as an end in itself. Not in Solon, Ceramic literature which does list a number of other Brongniart titles. Not in the Birren catalogue.
8vo, orig. cloth. 207+viii+iv pp with occas illus.
43. BRUCKE, DR. ERNEST. Les couleurs au point de vue physique, physiologique, artistique, et industriel. Paris: J. B.Bailliere & Fils, [1866]
First French edition, fine copy in the original printed wrappers. Originally published in Leipzig, 1866, this was a classic work in the field of color theory. "Ernest Wilhelm von Brucke (1819-1892) was the son of a painter and teacher of anatomy at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. He dealt throughout his life with questions concerning the theory of art and colours. In 1852 he pointed out that the appearance of certain colors depends on the brightness of adjacent colours. His experiments were repeated by Helmholtz who confirmed and improved on them. The directors of the Imperial Museum of Arts and Industry in 1864 felt the need of a theory of colors not for artists but for the ever growing industry in the first period of rapid industrial expansion and the flooding of markets with cheap mass produced articles. Brucke was to find the remedy and thus helped to lay the foundations of an art which was to be called industrial design almost a century later." - Walter Alicke. See Sherman, Color vision in the 19th century, pp. 53 ff. Not in the Birren Catalogue.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers. (iv)344 pp. with 46 text illus. Fine copy.
44. BUCKLEY, MARY & DAVID BAUM. Color theory. A guide to information sources. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1975
A useful bibliography of books on color, arranged by subject area: adaptation, aesthetics, architecture, decoration, design, form, imagery, harmony, colorimetry, perception, psychology, systems, theories, vision, etc. Indexed at the end by author. About 500 - 600 entries, with pagination and notes.
8vo, orig. cloth. x+173 pp.
45. BURNET, JOHN. Practical hints on colour in painting. Fifth edition. London: James Carpenter, 1843 A standard work of the early 19th century, illustrated with hand colored plates. This copy is part of a volume of collected works of Burnet, consisting of the following: An essay on the education of the eye, 2nd ed., 1837; Practical hints on composition, 5th ed., 1836; Practical hints on light and shade, 5th ed., 1838; Practical hints on color, 5th ed., 1843 and Practical hints on portrait painting (ed. H. Murray), 1860. The first and last of these titles do not normally appear in the "Practical hints" and are very difficult to find on their own. This copy belonged to the noted art historian W. G. Constable.
4to, orig. half cloth, neatly respined. 5 vols in one. (1) xii+73 pp. with 7 plates & 5 text illus; (2) 31 pp with 9 engr. plates; (3) vi+43 pp 8 engr. plates; (4) xii+64 pp with 8 hand-col plates (the first with color scales) and (5) (vi)+63 pp with 12 engr. plates. Good copy.
46. BURRIS-MEYER, ELIZABETH. Color and design in the decorative arts. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., 1935
First edition; this was a popular book which was revised in 1941 with the title Decorating livable homes. This edition is the only one to contain the two color charts, the first with 66 mounted color chips of "representative colors in common use in merchandising, advertising and dress." The second is a pigment color chart, 21 mounted paint chips in a color circle. The chapters discuss color for the layman: color science, harmony, color coordination in dress, color and cosmetics, the ensemble, designing for children; and a whole section on design and display: principles of design, harmony of proportion, harmony of balance, rythm and movement, interior and exterior display, lighting the home and the store, etc. Birren Catalogue 118 listing the revised edition.
8vo, orig. cloth. xx+572 pp. with 49 halftone illus and 2 color charts as described above.
47. BURRIS-MEYER, ELIZABETH. Contemporary color guide. How controlled color contributes to modern living. With 30 plates in color. New York: William Helburn, 1947
First edition. A very interesting book with 30 plates, each with 7 mounted strips of color, giving harmonized color schemes for various rooms of the house, e.g. foyer, hobby room, guest house, etc. Each of the color samples is identified according to the Munsell system of color notation. As with all such books with hand prepared and mounted plates, the edition cannot have been large. Birren Collection 117. NUC locates 5 copies.
8vo, orig. yellow cloth. ix+30 pp with 30 plates each with a leaf of letterpress (a total of 210 individual mounted color chips). Each plate with dust sheet.
48. BURRIS-MEYER, ELIZABETH. Historical color guide. Primitive to modern times with thirty plates in color. New York: William Helburn, 1938
Only edition, and considerably scarcer than the same author's Contemporary color guide. The 30 plates contain 150 color samples inked directly with rollers on heavy paper, cut and mounted for this edition. The historical styles include Egyptian, Cretan, Greek, Italian Renaissance, English Victorian, American sampler, Modern (Gauguin) etc. "The prolific Burris-Meyer, in her Historical color guide, produced one of the last of the truly handsome fashion books. She used intense, pure colors, that were inked directly with rollers on stiff paper, then cut and mounted." - Herbert, Yale Library Gazette, (July 1974), p. 28. Birren Collection 119.
8vo, orig. cloth. x+64 pp with plates as above, each with dust sheet.
49. CALLENDER'S CABLE & CONSTRUCTION CO. LTD. [Illustrated trade catalogue]. London & Erith, 1905
Fine copy of an unusual and visually pleasing trade catalogue. It is illustrated with about 45 cross sections of various cables printed in bold color lithography; each color stands for a material or metal (gold = copper; yellow = fibre or paper; gray = lead; red = steel, etc). The colors are explained in an index at the beginning. The circular diagrams are visually pleasing and in their variety/similarity resemble to some degree an artist's book. On this general subject see E. Tufte, Envisioning information (Cheshire, Conn., 1990).
12mo, orig. cloth, nice bright copy. 175 pp. with about 45 color plates.
50. CAMPBELL, LADY ARCHIBALD. Ranibow-music; or the philosophy of harmony in colour-grouping. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1886
As Professor Herbert has stated, over the course of the 19th century, musical analogies had been used with increasing frequency to explain the intangible qualities of painting, until at the end of the century there was a widespread belief in the interrelationships of color and music. See his comments on color music in the Yale Library Gazette July 1974, pp. 16-17. Lady Campbell discusses Whistler's Peacock Room, then goes on to discuss color music theory of Castel, Arcimboldi, Newton, Bacon, Goethe, Field and others. The present work is uncommon; not in the Birren Catalogue.
Oblong 8vo, disbound, but orig. printed wrappers. (ii)+34 pp. Printed on fine hand-made paper.
51. CAREL, HUBERT T. Chemical urinalysis. Minneapolis: University Book Store, 1898
First edition. An intriguing little book which finds a place in this color collection as the frontispiece is a "Scale of urine tints prepared with water colors according to Vogel's original article." Each of the nine mounted color samples are named, from pale yellow to brownish black. Science has come a long way in the intervening century! The author was not an M.D. but a Demonstrator in Chemistry.
12mo, orig. full roan. 70 pp with scattered text ilus and color frontisp as described above.
52. CARPENTER, H. BARRETT. Suggestions for the study of colour. London: Batsford, 1923
Originally published 1915. The author was headmaster of the School of Art, Rochdale. He claims to have made a long series of original experiments which in the end verified the truth of Rood's conclusions, "while beyond these there has emerged a new principle which appears to be clearly established in nature, that of 'Discord.'" Not in the Birren Catalogue which does list another later title by the same author.
8vo, orig. cloth. 102 pp. with 20 very handsome full page color plates for the purpose of making clear principles of the text.
53. CASTEL, [LOUIS BERTRAND]. L'optique des couleurs, fondÇe sur les simples observations, & tournÇe sur-tout Ö la pratique de la peinture, de la teniture, & des autres arts coloristes. Paris: Briasson, 1740
First and only edition. A very important work in the field of color music, it includes a description "de l'orgue ou clavecin oculaire de P. Castel" by George Phillipe Telemann; this depended upon the projection of colors simultaneously with the playing of the individual keys to which they were attached. This was the first attempt at an instrument of this type and thus became the forerunner of the electric color-organ of the music halls of the late 1890s and the psychedelic laser concerts and light shows of the late 20th century. The book is also important for its references to textiles and includes a recommendation for dyeing cloth with the aid of the three primitive colors only. See R. L. Herbert, Yale Lib. Gazette, (July 1974), pp. 16 and 27. Birren Collection 131. DSB III, 114 ff. Wallis, Newton & Newtoniana, 200.6. Massing 19. See also Kemp, The science of art, pp. 287-89 for a long analysis. Not in the Edelstein Collection. Rare; the last copy in the book auction records appears in 1975.
8vo, recent marbled sides, calf spine. (ii)+xviii+487+(v) pp. with 2 engr. plates.
54. CATE, PHILIP DENNIS & SINCLAIR HAMILTON HITCHINGS. The color revolution. Color lithography in France, 1890-1900. Santa Barbara & Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Inc., 1978
An important exhibition catalogue (Rutgers Univrsity and Boston Public Library) which includes a translation into English by Margaret Needham of AndrÇ Mellerio's 1898 essay La lithographie originale en couleurs. Includes biographies of artists and excellent general bibliography. Out of print and scarce.
4to, orig. color printed wrappers. ix+136 pp with 101 illus of which 32 are in color.
55. CAVE, MADAME MARIE ELIZABETH. Color. Approved by M. Eugene Delacroix, for teaching painting in oils and water-colors. Translated from the third French edition. New York: Putnam & Son, 1869 First American edition. Birren Collection 132.
8vo, orig. cloth. viii+110+(iv)+(ii) pp with two wood-engr. plates.
56. CENNINI, CENNINO. A treatise on painting written by Cennino Cennini in the year 1437; and first published in Italian in 1821, with an introduction and notes by Signor Tambroni...trans. by Mrs. Merrifield. London: Edward Lumley, 1844
Cennini's book was originally written in the fifteenth century and supplies most of our authentic and complete description of early Italian painting techniques and materials, the present work is the first English translation, "of considerable interest". Mayer, The artists' handbook, p.531. It "contains practical directions for painting in fresco, secco, oil and distemper, with the art oif gilding and illuminating manuscripts adopted by the old masters". It also contains important material on the Renaissance theories of color; see Kemp, The science of art, pp. 264-265.
8vo, orig. blue cloth sides with gilt blocking; rebacked in blue morocco gilt, nicely bound. Chromolitho. engr. title +lxx+177 pp. with 9 litho outline plates.
57. CHARPENTIER, AUGUSTIN. La lumiäre et les couleurs au point de vue physiologique. Paris: J. B. Balliere et Fils, 1888
First edition. The author was a professor at the Faculte of Medicine of Nancy. One of a small body of works published in the late nineteenth century exploring the relationship between light, colors and phsiology. Birren Collection 140.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers, uncut. xvi+352 pp. with 22 illus.
58. CHEVREUL, MICHEL E. Physical investigations on dyeing. On the influence that two colours may exercise upon each other when seen simultaneously. (IN) Works of the Cavendish Society; Chemical Reports and Memoirs, London: for the Soceity, 1848
This is the first English edition of Recherches sur la teinture, Paris, 1847, which was itself a reprint of a report read before the Academy in 1828. It served as the basis for the monumental De la loi du Contraste Simultane des Couleurs (1839). The present work was edited by Thomas Graham, corresponding member of the Institute of France and Professor of Chemistry in University College, London. This English edition is rare and important. This is paper V in the volume and occupies pages 165-238. Ron (Edelstein Catalogue), no. 0210.
8vo, recent green cloth (copying the original). viii+370+15 pp with 2 fdg engr. plates.
59. CHEVREUL, M. E. ExposÇ d'un moyen de dÇfiner et de nommer les couleurs, d'apräs une mÇthode prÇcise et expÇrimentale, avec l'application de ce moyen Ö la dÇfinition et Ö la dÇnomination des couleurs d'un grand nombre des corps naturels et de produits artificiels. (in) MÇmoires de l'Academie des Sciences de l'Institut de France. Tome 33. Paris: Firmin Didot, 1861
First and only edition, a very fine copy of this rare and beautiful work, both volumes preserved in the original wrappers. Because the text volume was never published as a monograph but as volume 33 of the MÇmoires de l'Academie des Sciences de l'Instutit de France, both atlas and text rarely survive together. This is one of the rarest of Chevreul's many publications on color.
A massive work, 944 pages plus the atlas of color plates, Chevreul here diagrammed the variations on a chromatic scale on which, out of the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue, he defined almost 15,000 tones by first placing these three colors on equidistant radii of the circle and interpolating twenty three color mixtures in each of the sectors. He thus obtained a chromatic circle of seventy-two colors representing the entire visible spectrium. This work, and Chevreul's color theory generally, has received much attention from scholars; Martin Kemp on the present work: "Underlying his demonstrations was a precise nomenclature for colour relationships: tons, for tonal value on a scale from black to white; gamme for the tonal scale itself; nuances for the modifications of one hue by the admixture of another; coleur franches for pure, saturated pigments; coleurs rabattues (or rompus) for colours broken with black (or grey). These qualities were graphically demonstrated in a colour wheel to which was attached a quadrant. The wheel shows seventy-four nuances of colour, marked by radial lines, and twenty degrees of tonal gradation, from white at the center to black at the circomference...That his intention was not to deepen the saturated colours to the deepest black but by an unsaturated black is confirmed by the ten tonally graded wheels published in the beautiful Atlas accompanying his EsposÇ d'un moyen... in 1861" (The science of art, p. 306-7). See also Sherman, Colour vision in the 19th century, pp. 68-71. Color Documents 22. Not in the Birren Catalogue. Not in M. Ingerand, Bibliographie de la couleur (Paris, 1984), a good indication of the rarity of this work.
2 vols, both in orig. blue printed wrappers. Text: large 4to, entirely untrimmed and unopened. lxxiii+944 pp. Atlas: Folio. T.p., 1 litho plate (color wheel) and 14 chromo-litho plates printed by the process of Digeon. The first plate is a double-p. folding solar spectrum; the second is a series of three scales showing contrasting hues from white to black and the final 12 are chromatic circles. Color plates printed on India paper.
60. CHEVREUL, M. E. The principles of harmony and contrast of colours, and their applications to the arts...translated from the French by Charles Martel. Third edition, with an additional introduction by the translator, and a general index. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1860
A nice copy. Originally published London, 1854, this was the first complete English edition and the best translation of this great and important book. This edition is most notable for the addition of the 15 color plates (chromolithographs). It was this Martel translation which was chosen by Faber Birren for his reprint edition of 1981 (published by Van Nostrand Reinhold Co). Birren comments: "The British received it with great enthusiasm and later so did America. No other book on color except Newton's Optics went into so many editions over so long a period of time. From first to last it was kept in print for over 25 years."
8vo, 19th century full polished red calf, gilt. xlvi+465 pp. with 4 engr. illus (of which 1 fdg) and 15 color plates.
61. CHEVREUL, M. E. The principles of harmony and contrast of colours, and their applications to the arts. Translated from the French by Charles Martel. Third edition with an additional introduction by the translator and a general index. London: G. Bell & Sons, 1887
This edition has the additions noted in the title. A note to the preface states "It is hoped the book will now be found as perfect as it is possible to make it."
8vo, orig. cloth (spine darkened). xlviii+465+24 pp with 3 fdg. engr. plates (one with folding flap) and 15 chromo-litho plates. Inner hinges weak.
62. CHEVREUL, M. E. The laws of contrast of colour: and their application to the arts...translated from the French by John Spanton. New edition, with illustrations printed in colours. London: Routledge, Warn & Routledge, 1860
A very good copy in a splendid decorated binding and desirable as such, in addition to its textual importance. This edition is of special interest both for its color and gilt blocked sunburst binding and for the Edmund Evans color plates. The text as well as the plates deal with painting, decoration of buildings, mosaic work, tapestry and carpet weaving, calico printing, dress, paper staining, printing, illumination, landscape and flower gardening, etc. The plates are printed in colors by Edmund Evans, and are color wood engravings, not chromolithographs. "Most of the prints in the book illustrate the effects of neighboring colors on the appearance of a given hue. Because all the colors were shown in discrete relatively large areas, not overlapping with any other color, these illustrations were particularly suited to Evans's method of color printing." - Friedman, Color printing, n. 106. Abbey, Life, 107. McLean, p. 82. Birren Collection 148.
Small 8vo, orig. gilt blocked dec. cloth with red and gold triangle on cover surrounded by sunburst of gilt lines, spine with title and decorations in gilt blocking. xvi+237 pp with 17 plates, of which 16 printed in colors. Tiny area with loss of cloth upper corner of spine; but a very good copy.
63. CHEVREUL, M. E. The laws of contrast of colour and their applications to the arts and manufactures. Translated from the French by John Spanton. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1883 This translation was originally published in the late 1850s; the present is the third edition. "The present edition has been entirely revised; some obscurities cleared up, and a chapter on military clothing added." The plates were printed in colors by Edmund Evans, and are color wood-engravings, not chromolithographs. Birren Collection 148. This is a fine bright copy.
Small 8vo, orig. dec. cloth. xvi+243 pp with 17 plates of which 16 printed in colors.
64. CHEVREUL, M[ICHEL] E[UGENE]. Theorie des effets optiques que presentent les etoffes de soie. Paris: Firmin Didot, 1846
First edition, in the original printed wrappers, untrimmed, of one of Chevreul's major works. "Under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce of Lyon he studied the optical effects shown by various fabric constructions of silk and developed a theory for explaining these effects based on a system of parallel cylinders combined with his previous ideas of color contrast." - Edelstein, Historical notes on the wet processing industry, p. 30. The color plate in his book explains the cylinder idea. Honeyman 683. British Opt. Assoc. Cat. II, p. 21. Edelstein 2927. Birren Collection 154. Uncommon in the marketplace, only two copies appear in the auction records in the past dozen years.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers. Untrimmed copy. 208 pp. with 1 fdg. chromolitho plate printed by Lemercier. Old rubber stamp on verso of title page: "Chambre de Commerce de Lyon."
65. CHURCH, A. H. Colour. London, Paris & New York: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, n.d., [c. 1890] Originally published 1871. A general handbook emphasizing the imortance of the sensations of light on the retina. All of his theory is based on prevailing beliefs; he acknowledges Chevreul, Clerk-Maxwell, Helmholtz, W. Benson, W. von Bezold and Rood. Birren Collection 156. Wurmfeld, Color documents, no. 29.
12mo, orig. cloth. 112 pp. with 34 illus of which 5 are full page chromolithos. Nice copy.
66. COLIBERT. Terra cotta painting, with practical notes on mixing colours. London: William Barnard, n.d. [ca. 1880]
An instruction book for the mixing of colors by artists and ceramic painters. Bound at the end: "Priced catalogue of colours and materials for painting, drawing, etc."
12mo, orig. printed wrappers. 10+22 pp., illus. Spine mended with cellotape.
67. CONNICK, CHARLES J. Adventures in light and color. An introduction to the stained glass craft. Foreword by Charles D. Maginnis, F.A.I.A. New York: Random House, 1937
First edition. An impressive book with a fine series of 42 color plates which have been tipped in against black backgrounds. Included in Chamberlin's Guide to Art Reference books: "A rather chatty book by one of the recognized practicioners of the art today. Valuable for techniques. 'How to share a glass-man's holiday', pp. 267-377, lists where important glass may be found in churches and museums in Europe and America." - #1801. Also includes important bibliography, pp. 378-91. Duncan 2647.
Small folio, orig. cloth, paper labels on spine and front cover. xviii+428 pp. with 42 tipped in color plates and 48 collotype plates as well as numerous text illus.
68. CORNELL, GRACE. Color. Boston: Carter's Ink Co., 1934
First edition. The author was a noted artist; "her contributions to art in industry have been many and valuable and her standing as a nationally known authority in the color field is widely recognized." This booklet is something of an art object itself; it was printed in 27 colors by the Stetson Press at Boston. The color pages have been produced by the "Brush-tone" process using actual Carter's VelVet tempera colors. Not in the Birren Catalogue.
8vo, orig. color printed wrappers. 24 pp. with 22 illus, mostly printed in bold colors.
69. COTT, HUGH B. Adaptive coloration in animals. London: Methuen & Co., 1940
First edition. The author was a lecturer in zoology at Cambridge University. Introduction by Julian S. Huxley. There is a long tradition of the study of color in animals; it began with Moses Harris in the eighteenth century with a study of the coloration of insects. Other works on this subject in this collection include books by Gerald Thayer, Edward Poulton, Frank Beddard, Daniel Girard Elliott, etc. The present work is a model of scholarship; it inlcudes no less than 685 items in the bibliography.
8vo, orig. cloth. xxxii+508 pp. with color frontisp and 48 plates of halftones. Inner hinges weak; old bookplate and rubber stamp.
70. [COZANET, ALBERT]. D'UDINE, JEAN (pseud). L'orchestration des couleurs. Analyse, classification et synthese mathmatiques des sensations colorÇes. Paris: A. Joanin, 1903
First edition. Jean d'Udine is a pseudonym; the author's real name was ALBERT COZANET. As is often the case with color books, the physical format here is interesting; this work is illustrated with 10 chromolithographic plates hors texte - here they are separately printed on light weight card stock and inserted inside the front cover. D'Udine was a prolific writer on music as well as color. Not in the Birren Collection. NUC locates 6 copies (under Cozanet).
8vo, orig. printed wrappers. 216 pp. with 50 text illus and 10 plates as described above. Untrimmed and unopened.
71. CRACE-CALVERT, F[rederick]. Dyeing and calico printing; including an account of the most recent improvements in the manufacture and use of aniline colours...illustrated by John Stenhouse and Charles Edward Greaves. Manchester: Palmer & Howe; London: Simpkin; New York: Wiley, 1876
First edition. A standard work, scarce, and of especial interest for the 56 large mounted examples of dyed fabric samples. The author, a Fellow of the Royal Society, died in 1873 at the age of 54. Bolton I, p.380, listing only the second edition. Edelstein 2885. Not in Lawrie. The samples are all present and in fine bright condition; the preface lists the firms who supplied them.
8vo, original cloth, chip in head of spine. xxxii+509+iii pp. with fdg. table, 14 wood-engr. illus. and 56 mounted fabric samples.
72. CROOKES, WILLIAM. A practical handbook of dyeing and calico printing. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1874
First edition of this standard and important work, carrying on in the footsteps of Bancroft, O'Neill, Parnell, Napier, etc, but taking into account all the new discoveries in the chemistry of dyeing, especially the coal tar colours. Lawrie 135. Suprisingly, this title is not in the remarkably complete Edelstein collection. Faber Birren Collection 188.(O).
Thick 8vo, old cloth, leather lettering piece. xvi+730+(1)+28 pp. with 36 wood-engr. illus., 11 full-p. plates and 47 actual mounted specimens of dyed and printed fabrics. Ex-lib., old rubber stamp on t.p. but a good copy.
73. CUTLER, CARL GORDON & STEPHEN C. PEPPER. Modern color. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1923
First edition, author's presentation copy inscribed 'Hope Gladding from Stephen C. Pepper March 1923.' This was a book for painters and artists and included a description of 'Cutler's Color Scale.' Birren Catalogue 190.
8vo, orig. cloth in d.w.163 pp. with 5 text illus of which 3 colored.
74. DAUTHENAY, HENRI and RENE OBERTHUR. Repertoire de couleurs, pour aider a la determination des couleurs des fleurs, des feuillages et des fruits. [Paris?]: La Societe Francaise des Chrysanthemistes, 1905
First edition of this scarce work on color nomenclature, given a good note by Robert Herbert: "At the turn of the century, the new processes of photo-lithography had come into their own and still retained a delicate physical thickness of surface that affords a tactile pleasure not found in photo-offset. The natural color standard produced by Oberthur and Dauthenay in 1905 has this handsome appearance (the authors record the long tribulations leading to the successful printing)." - Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, p. 10. Birren Collection 589.
2 vols. 4to, in orig. printed flap edged portfolio cases. I: [1-8], 9-82 pp. 182 [i.e. 184] photo-litho plates. II: 183 photo-litho plates. Plates numbered consecutively 1-365. The cases only are faded; contents fine.
75. DAVIDSON, ELLIS. A practical manual of house-painting, graining, marbling and sign-writing containing full information on the processes of house-painting in oil and distemper, the formation of letters and practice of sign-writing, the principles of decorative art, a course of elmentary drawing for house-painters, writers, etc. London: Crosby Lockwood, 1904
Originally published about 1870; this is the ninth edition and a good copy complete with the 9 chromo-lithographs of woods and marbles. Not so long ago a fairly common book, this is now quite scarce.
8vo, orig. cloth. xxi+394+40 pp with 114 text illus and 9 chromo litho plates.
76. DEVOE & RAYNOLDS CO. INC. Service color chart. New York, 1925
A pocket sized stiff card color chart with spinning wheel to enable the user to work out color harmonies for personal dress, for home decoration, design, etc.
12mo, 4 pp printed on stiff card stock. Circular black plastic spinning wheel.
77. DOVE, H[EINRICH] W[ILHELM]. Darstellung der Farbenlehre und optische studien. Berlin: G. W. F. Muller, 1853
First edition, a fine clean copy of a classic of color theory. H. W. Dove (1803-1879) had studied at the University of Breslau with Brandes. He did important work in metereology and physics (see DSB). His science of colors took an historical approach. He discusses the theories of his illustrious forerunners: Newton, Huygens, Goethe, Young, etc. Includes chapters on light discussing polarization and absorption. Also the stereoscope and the apparatus needed for its application. The plates depict the apparatus designed by Dove for his experiments. Dove also did important work in the field of color sensitometry and stated the principle of tube photometers (see Eder, Hist of Photography, p. 452). Darmstadter 516. Poggendorff, III, 375. Sutcliffe, Brit Optical Assn Cat., p. 56 with note. Not in the Birren catalogue.
8vo, orig. cloth. viii+292 pp. with engr. frontisp and 2 fdg. plates. Very nice copy.
78. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO. INC. The dyeing of leather. Prepared by F. P. Howden. Wilmington, Del., 1924
An interesting book written to assist the tanner in a proper selection of colors. Five plates with a total of 30 mounted samples give formulas for shades on Querbracho tanned sheepskin, sumac tanned sheepskin, chrome tanned goatskin, chrome tanned calfskin and ooze calfskin.
8vo, orig. boards. 39 pp with 5 plates with 30 mounted leather samples. Spine and part of rear cover are faded from old dampstains but the book itself is internally clean.
79. EARHART, JOHN F. The color printer. A treatise on the use of colors in typographic printing. Cincinnati: Earhart & Richardson, 1892
First and only edition, one of my favorite books in the whole range of 19th century color printing. "Justly famous for its beauty and utility...in marvelous plates often hinting of Art Nouveau, Earhart offered demonstrations of color-mixing, color-harmonies, and color printing in its various phases and recorded the actual proportions of inks used. Vignettes, letters, designs, and a whole variety of plates are rendered in most of the common color processes, and some of them are embossed." - Herbert, Yale Lib. Gazette, July 1974, p. 16. "[Earhart's] book, over which he laboured for more than four years, was intended "as a practical guide to all printers who desire to obtain the most artistic results in ornamental Colour Printing by the least amount of labour and expense"...The greater part of the colour plates (which required 625 formes and 1,625,000 impressions for their production in a small edition) are used to demonstrate tints of varying strength and their combination with other tints...all the plates, which included specimens of embossing, printing in gold, rainbow printing, map printing, impressions from emery paper and various woods, were meticulously printed." - Vivian Ridler, "Artistic printing: a search for principles," Alphabet & Image, 6. Wurmfeld, Color documents, 37. Birren Collection 213. The work was well known to printers in England and is one of the few American manuals included in Bridson/Wakeman (C117).
4to, orig. half morocco. 137 pp with 90 plates printed in color with 403 different examples of printing. Signed by the author. Front hinge rubbed but strong. A good copy.
80. EARHART, [JOHN FRANKLIN]. The Earhart color plan. Cincinnati: the author, n.d. [ca. 1910] First edition, rare. "More direct printing processes with yet thicker inks could nontheless produce more saturated colors. The Earhart color plan of about the same year (1905-10) has eight detached color charts in a platen printing process, which can be slipped in and out of a sturdy perforated case. The pattern of colors shown in the apertures conforms to basic lessons in color harmony, the whole (user's movement included) constitutiong an unconscious parallel to the machine world, as though the twentieth century were being greeted at its outset by a book-machine." - R. L. Herbert, Yale Library Gazette (July 1974), p. 10. Birren Catalogue 214.
Tall 8vo, stiff card case with 12 apertures for viewing the sliding color cards. Folded sheet of directions (5 "pages") and 8 color cards. Printed by the Feicke Printing Co., Cincinnati. Excellent condition.
81. EARHART, JOHN F. The harmonizer. Cincinnati: Earhart & Richardson, 1897
First and only edition, a good copy of an extraordinary and very rare book, intended to demonstrate proper technique and correct ink color choice for printing on colored stock. Every one of the 240 pages is printed on a different colored stock in varying colors of ink. Given high praise by the always perceptive Robert Herbert: "Among books which are themselves exemplars of unusually beautiful printing, Earhart stands out. The harmonizer (1897) has extraordinary platen-press work of varied design, based upon twelve pure inks, and twenty-four more derived from mixtures of the initial group." - "A color bibliography II," Yale Lib. Gazette, (1978), p. 134. The work was printed with inks made by the Ault and Wiborg Co. of Cincinnati on four Colt's Armory presses. Birren Collection 215. Not in the Burke Printing Collection. Not in Romaine. Not in McKinstry.
8vo, orig. cloth. 7 pp of text, 2 plates of ink colors and 240 "plates". Final leaf of letterpress colophon.
82. ELLIOT, DANIEL GIRARD. The gallinaceous game birds of North America. New York. Francis P. Harper, 1897
First edition; published in New York and London simultaneously. Highly interesting for the color chart inside the rear cover, which is actually a series of 30 sheets of named colored papers "intended to assist readers to identify the various colors mentioned in this work." This work falls into a category of nature books which give their own systems of color nomenclature; others are mentioned by R. L. Herbert in his "Color bibliography" in the Yale Library Gazette (July 1974), pages 8 and 25. The Elliot book is not well known in the literature of color as the color samples are not obvious and are not mentioned on the title page.
8vo, orig. dec. cloth, spine a bit soiled. 220+iii pp with 46 plates in halftone and 30 sheets of named colors. T.p. with old library stamp.
83. FAVRE, DR. A. ReformÇ des employÇs de chemin de fer affectÇs de Daltonisme. Lyon: Vingtrinier, 1873 John Dalton (1766-1844) published the first scientific description of color-blindness, or "Daltonism." Dalton himself suffered from red-green blindness. Color blindness became an occupational hazard, especially for railway workers (see below under Holmgren) and was given much attention by phyiologists in the later 19th century. Dr. Favre had worked on the subject for more than twenty years. His paper is illustrated by a particularly appealilng double page folding color litho plate.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers. 23 pp with one double-p. fdg. litho plate.
84. FER, EDOUARD. Solfäge de la couleur. Preface de Yves Le Grand. Paris: Dunod, 1953
First edition. The author was a painter "de tres grande talent" according the preface; the work contains approbrations from Guiliame Apollinaire and Paul Signac. He deals with "les principes fondamentaux du mÇlange scientifique des lumiäres colorÇes et du mÇlange thÇorique des couleurs." The color plates are simply stunning. Not in the Birren Catalogue. Indergand no. 36.
4to, spiral bound, orig. printed stiff card stock covers. (viii)+28 pp with 15 color plates (of which 1 double-p. and 4 with additional leaves of letterpress) plus 2 final leaves of ads.
85. FIELD, GEORGE. Chromatics or, an essay on the analogy and harmony of colours. London: Printed for the author by A. J. Valpy, 1817
First edition of the author's first publication on color. George Field (1777?-1854) was well known as a writer on color theory, artists' pigments and as a color maker. This title is not listed in the bibliography of his writings in the D.N.B. though it is mentioned in R. D. Harley, Artists pigments, p. 27. The Birren Catalogue cites only a later edition of 1845 (233). Wurmfeld, Color documents, no. 23 also cites only the edition of 1845. A new exhibition catalogue puts Field into much sharper focus: John Gage, George Field and his circle (Fitzwilliam Mus., Cambridge), 1989, where the present work is no. 45. All of the above not withstanding, perhaps the major importance of this work is its place in the area of color music, of which Field was the principal exponent in the first half of the nineteenth century. Professor Herbert explains: "Field had inherited from the late 18th century the two common forms of color schemes, the circle and the triangle. Each shape permitted a continuous zone of color around a center, so that the primaries could be symmetrically disposed with the secondaries between them, and with complimentaries (red-green, yellow-purple, blue-orange) opposite one another, while light/dark could be shown in lateral progression from the center outward. Field combines the two in very beautiful plates which show two triangles (the three primaries and the three secondaries) overlapping a common central circle and surrounded by large rings of the three primariles...A musical clef is part of their presentation, for Field insists upon the interrelationships of music, color and geometry which reflect, he tells us, "a universal archetype," the underlying harmony of the universe." - Yale Library Gazette (July 1974), pp. 17-18. NUC locates 6 copies.
4to, orig. boards, rebacked. viii+57+ii pp. 15 text illus (of which 13 hand colored) and 6 full-page hand colored plates. Untrimmed copy.
86. FIELD, GEORGE. Chromatography; or a treatise on colours and pigments, and their powers in painting, &c. London: Charles Tilt, 1835
First edition of the most influential work on pigment chemistry written in England in the early 19th century. "In many ways, the most useful literary source concerning pigments rather than painting of the period is Field's Chromatography, published in 1835...The first part of Chromatography is concerned with colour theory, followed by a section in which the nature and composition of individual pigments are discussed. The last part contains some comments on oils, varnishes and picture cleaning...From an historical point of view an important feature of the first edition is the inclusion of a large number of pigments, no matter how obscure, so that the book fills the gaps left by most of the early 19th century books on painting." - R. D. Harley, Artists' pigments, pp. 27-28. See also Weinreb Cat 39:103 for a good note by Priscilla Wrighson. The catalogue of the Birren Collection at Yale does not include this first edition. Abbey, Life, 123. The work also contains important material on conservation (see Ruhemann/Plesters, p. 386). The final chapter discusses and illustrates some new optical instruments (the chromascope and the metrochrome). There were a number of later editions (see below); this first edition is rare. NUC locates seven copies of this edition.
Small folio, later 19th century full roan, neatly rebacked. xix+276 pp with hand-col. engr. frontisp and 1 engr plate.
87. FIELD, GEORGE. Chromatography. A treatise on colours and pigments and of their powers in painting. New edition, improved. London: Winsor & Newton, n.d. [ca. 1845]
Originally published 1835. This was the most influential work on color chemistry written in England in the early 19th century and by 1885 it had run, in various forms, to ten editions. This edition differs from the first and omits the plate of optical instruments but adds three hand colored text illustrations. "In many ways the most useful literary source concerning pigments rather than painting of the period is Field's Chromatography, published in 1835...[It] provides a suitable close to the survey of literary works, not merely by virtue of the fact that it lists the range of colours available in 1835, but because in it the author shows a responsible concern about the durability of colours which largely gave rise to later editions of the book by others and so prepared the way for scientific works on colour chemistry in the late 19th century." - Harley, Artists pigments, pp. 27-8. Also contains important material on conservation (see Ruehmann/Plesters, p. 386). See J. Gage, George Field and his circle, (1989), no. 18 for a long and highly informative note on this book and its various editions.
8vo, orig. cloth, spine faded, dull. xviii+424+1 pp. with hand-col. frontisp and 3 hand-col. text illus. T. p. foxed.
88. FIELD, GEORGE. Field's Chromatography. A treatise on colours and pigments for the use of artists. Modernized by J. Scott Taylor. London: Winsor and Newton, 1885
George Field (1777?-1854) was a manufacturer of pigments and author of works on chromatic science; he was the subject of an exhibition and catalogue at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, in 1989. Of the present work the preface states: "This book is, to some extent, a condensed and revised issue of Field's Chromatography, and is based on the last edition by Mr. T. W. Salter." This edition contains 4 chromolithographic plates and is cited in S. Wurmfeld, Color documents, no. 25. NUC locates three copies.
8vo, orig. cloth, gilt blocked front cover. viii+207+ii pp. with 4 chromo litho plates. A very nice copy.
89. FIELD, GEORGE. Rudiments of the painters' art, or a grammar of colouring, applicable to operative painting, decorative architecture and the arts. With coloured illustrations and practical instructions concerning the modes and materials of painting, etc. London: John Weale, 1850
First edition. "The only other version of [Chromatography (1835)] published during Field's lifetime was a radical abridgement issued in 1850 under the title Rudiments of the painters' art..." (Gage, George Field and his circle, 1989, no. 18). The bulk of the book is devoted to a discussion of pigments (pp. 12-113). Arranged under primary, secondary, tertiary and semineutral colors; the final chapters discuss varnishes, oils, vehicles, cleaning, restoring, removing paints, etc. Birren collection 236.
Small 8vo, original cloth, printed paper label on cover. viii+170 pp with 6 plates of which 4 colored (1 by hand, the others color printed). Nice copy.
90. FIELD, GEORGE. A grammar of colouring applied to decorative painting and the arts. Revised, enlarged, and adapted to the use of the ornamental painter and designer...by Ellis A. Davidson. Fourth edition. London: Crosby Lockwood, 1888
The Davidson edition was originally published 1874. This is in fact more Davidson than Field; the original text has been added to and rearranged, and the editor's plates substituted for Field's. The text contains "additional sections on painting in sepia, water colours and oils ... " The bulk of the work, however, still deals with pigments. Birren Collection 235. Wurmfeld, Color documents, no. 24.
8vo, orig. cloth, spine dull, remains of orig. paper label. xvi+224+32 pp. with 2 chromolithograph plates and 38 wood-engr. illus.
91. FIELDING, T. H. On painting in oil and water colours, for landscape and portraits; including the preparation of colours, vehicles, oils, etc., methods of painting in wax or encaustic; also on the chemical properties and permanency of colours, and on the best methods of cleaning and repairing old paintings, etc. London: Published for the author by R. Ackermann & Co., 1839
Fine copy of an important book, this deals systematically with both oil painting and water color painting. In his preface Fielding remarks on 'the very small number of practical treatises on Oil Painting that have appeared in the English langauge during the last fifty years...on the other hand, works which treat on painting in water-colours have been so multiplied that noone can complain of their scarcity.' The work covers in detail the uses of colors and their properties, with many references to Field's writings (see items above), and has chapters on portrait painting, backgrounds, varnishes and oils, painting surfaces and picture restoration. The frontispiece is a colored aquatint of palettes prepared with oil paints and a selection of brushes. Gilpin to Ruskin: drawing masters and their manuals 1800-1860, no. 47. NUC locates 3 copies.
Large 8vo, orig. boards, cloth spine, neatly rehinged, new paper label on spine. viii+159+(i) pp of adverts with 10 plates of which 4 hand-colored containing many small illustrations in aquatint and mezzotint.
92. FISCHER, MARTIN. The permanent palette. Mountain Lake Park, Maryland: National Publishing Society, 1930
First edition. The author began painting because he had a "scientific interest in the materials of which pictures are made and the principles underlying their production." Chapters include the causes of non-permanence, choosing a palette, light and pigment mixture, the whites, the blacks, the colored pigments, the transparent pigments, apparently safe "earth" pigments which are to be avoided, the natural and synthetic lakes, other particulate pigments, painting foundations and grounds, the media used in oil painting, etc. Mayer, The artists handbook, p. 695. About one half of the book is devoted to describing pigments and colors.
8vo, orig. cloth in d.j. xiv+134 pp with 4 plates in color.
93. FRIEDMAN, JOSEPH S. History of color photography. Boston: American Photographic Publishing Co., 1944
First edition. "An indispensable supplement to E. J. Wall's History of three color photography, particularly valuable for its extensive analytical treatment of patent disclosures." - Boni.
8vo, orig. cloth. x+514 pp. with 109 illus.
94. FULLER, W. P. & CO. Catalogue F. Paints, oils, varnishes, brushes and glass. San Francisco, ca. 1910 A massive trade catalogue of paints and colors, it contains hundreds and hundreds of paint chips (surely more than any other trade catalogue we have ever had). Under section I, Paints and Colours, are the following: mixed paints, leads, putty, oil colors, distemper colors, Japan colors, wood fillers, dry colors, wall finishes, cold water paints, dry wood stains. This is only section one; there are four other sections to the cataogue.
Thick large 8vo, orig. cloth, bound with two steel screws. Paginated in series, ca 700 - 1000 pp. with hundreds of paint chips and other illus.
95. GARDNER, F. B. Everybody's paint book. A complete guide to the art of outdoor and indoor painting. New York: M. T. Richardson, 1886
Originally published 1884, this was an immensly popular work. It consists of "practical lessons in plain painting, varnishing, polishing, staining, paper-hanging, kalsomining, etc. as well as directions for renovating furniture, and hints on artistic work for home decoration together with a full decription of the tools and materials used. Precise directions are given for mixing paints for all purposes."
8vo, orig. cloth. iv+186 pp (the last 3 of which are ads) with 38 text illus. Spine faded else a nice copy.
96. GAY, R. & CO., LTD. A record of colour. Specimens and prices of impenetrable paint, Etruscan paint, Tegoline enamel, Impenetrable damp-proof solution. London, ca. 1905
A fine copy of a rare trade catalogue complete with the mask which was loosely laid in. Gay & Co. supplied the paints which were used on the whole of the outside of Buckingham Palace in 1895; they lasted well until 1905 when the palace was again painted with Etruscan paint. All of the samples (95 of them) are present in fine condition.
8vo, orig. printed cloth. 46 pp with 95 mounted samples and loose mask of black card stock laid in.
97. [GERSTACKER, DR. LUDWIG]. Das Farbenmischbuch. Zwickau: Foster & Borries, 1934
A sample book of color printing. The introduction by Dr. Gerstacker is 6 pages; the remainder of the book is devoted to color proofs of mixed colors in halftones. At the end there are several examples of 3 and 4 color printing and 3 color circles. Birren Catalogue 228. Noted by Professor Herbert: "Many color plates in 'Nagra-Farben' giving range of hues and and examples of application."
8vo, orig. boards, linen spine. x+143+7 final color plates (one double-page). Color plates on coated paper.
98. GODON, JULIEN. Painted tapestry and its application to interior decoration. Practical lessons in tapestry painting with liquid colour. London: Lechertier, Barbe & Co., 1879
First edition in English. An appealing book, translated from the French by B. Bucknall, architect. Of particular interest are the plates: they are colour printed on a thick canvas like paper with a slight corrugated relief to simulate cloth tapestries.
8vo, orig. cloth, gilt. xviii+89 pp. plus 26 pp. catalogue of artists' materials with 6 plates.
99. GOETHE, [J. W. von]. Goethe's theory of colours, translated from the German: with notes by Charles Lock Eastlake. London: John Murray, 1840
This is the first edition of the first English translation of the famous Farbenlehre. "For a profoundly creative and challenging response to Goethe's science by a painter of real genius we have to look to Britain, to the art of Turner. Turner was almost seventy by the time he made his detailed study of Goethe's Farbenlehre in Charles Eastlake's 1840 annotated translation, but his response was not that of an old man rigidly set in his ways. Two complex paintings of supreme quality were the remarkable result of his 'dialogue' with Goethe. His immediate reactions on reading Goethe's treatise are contained in a series of marginal notes in his copy, ranging from approbatory references to terse exclamations of disagreement. 'Poor Dame Nature' he wrote, when he felt that Goethe was doing less than justice to the ultimate source of all visual beauty. He was attracted by much of what the German author was saying, particularly with respect to the integral relationship of colour and tone, but suspicious of the more rigid prescriptions and hesitant in the face of the anti-Newtonian polemics...(Kemp, The science of art, p. 299). See also R. L. Herbert, Yale Library Gazette, (July l974), pp. 6-7. Buckley, Color theory, p. 128. Babson 151. Birren Coll. 271. Not in Edelstein. Not in Wurmfeld, Color documents. Ruhemann/Plesters, p. 457 with an interesting note. Finally, see D. Robertson, Sir Charles Eastlake and the Victorian art world, pp. 1978, pp. 54-55.
8vo, 19th cent. half polished calf. xlviii+423+4 pp with 4 hand-colored plates.
100. GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON. Theory of colours. Translated from the German with notes by Charles Lock Eastlake. Introduction by Deane B. Judd. Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press, 1970
The introduction by Judd is excellent and not available elsewhere.
8vo, orig. stiff wrappers. lxii+423 pp. with 4 colored plates on coated paper.
101. GOETHE, [J. W. von]. Goethe's color theory. Arranged and edited by Rupprecht Matthaei. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1971
"English edition translated and edited by Herb Asch. With a complete facsimile reproduction of Charles Eastlake's 1820 (sic), translation of the "didactic part" of the Color Theory." This is a definitive edition; Matthaei was director of the Goethe archives at Weimar, and spent many years analyzing Goethe's theory of color. A handsome well printed and illustrated book.
4to, cloth in d. w. in glassine. 275 pp. with 137 illus., many in color. Old library call slip on front flyleaf; small rubber stamp but not marked otherwise.
102. GOETHE, [J. W. von]. Oeuvres scientifiques de Goethe analysÇes et appreciÇes par Ernest Faivre. Paris: Hachette, 1862
About one third of the book deals with Goethe's color theory. As follows: Chapter IV: TraitÇ des couleurs; partie didactique; Chapter V: TraitÇ des couleurs, suite de la partie didactique; polemique contre Newton; critique de la doctrine de Goethe; partisans et adversaries du traitÇ des couleurs; Chapter VI: TraitÇ des couleurs, partie historique; Chapter VII: Ecrits de Goethe sur les couleurs entoptiques et sur l'arc-en-ciel; ses Çtudes mÇtÇrÇologiques. Nice copy in the original red quarter morocco binding.
8vo, orig. quarter morocco. iv+444 pp. with occas text illus and 4 plates hors texte.
103. GRAVES, MAITLAND. The art of color and design. Second edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 1951 An attempt at reestablishing first principles. Intended for all practicioners of the "space arts" - illustrators, photographers, nonrepresentational painters, sculptors, architects, decorators, industrial designers, art instructors and their students. About half the book is devoted to color. Not in the Birren catalogue (which does include another title by Graves).
4to, orig. cloth. xvi+438 pp. with numerous illus (a few of which are colored). Printed on good quality coated paper.
104. GREEN, N. E. Hints on sketching from nature. Part I: [General]. Part II: Light and Shade; III: Colour. Eighth edition. London: Geo. Rowney & Co., [ca. 1867]
One of many 19th century artists manuals, all of which dealt to some degree with the subject of color. This one devotes all of the third section (68 pages and 8 color plates) to color; topics discussed include primary colors and their combinations; qualities of colours; mixing broken tints; contrast and harmony; color in landscape; balance in colour, etc. Bound at the end is a separate work: Aaron Penley, A system of water color painting. And behind that a 54 page catalogue of Rowney's art supplies.
2 vols in one, old half calf. 54+40+68+64+54 pp with 16 litho plates and 8 color litho plates. Some pages loose in binding.
105. GRIFFITS, THOMAS E. Colour printing. A practical demonstration of colour printing by letterpress, photo-offset lithography and drawn lithography with illustrations demonstrating alternative methods of production and including a comprehensive colour chart. London: Faber & Faber, 1948
A handsomely printed two volume work, the second "volume" actually a boxed set of folded sheets showing the successive phases of letterpress, photo-lithographic and hand-drawn lithographic printing. The final sheet shows the effects of six different blacks on overprinted colors as well as two colors overprinted and three colors overprinted. This final sheet includes a stop for isolating the six blacks on the color chart. Birren Catalogue 286.
Large 8vo, 2 vols in original slipcase with leather spine label. I. xii+35 pp. II. 10 fdg. color printed charts and perforated card in slipcase. Fine set.
106. GUIGNET, CH.-ER. Les couleurs. Ouvrage illustrÇ de 36 gravures et de 18 planches en couleurs. Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1889
First edition. A fine copy of this basic manual by a disciple of Chevreul. It is part of the series "Bibliohteque des Merveilles." The color lithographic plates are well done and illustrate color contrasts and relationships. Birren Catalogue 288.
8vo, half polished morocco. (vi)+273 pp. with 36 text illus and 18 chromolitho plates.
107. GUILLEMIN, AMEDEE. La lumiere et les couleurs. Paris: Hachette & Cie., 1875
Second edition. Basically a work of popular science; chapters on light and shadow, the speed of light, reflection, refraction, sources of light, polarization, colors of solids, flames, of opaque bodies; classifications of colors, etc. Ingerand, Bib de la couleur no. 1117 cites the third edition.
12mo, orig. printed wrappers, cover wrapper printed in color. viii+ 302+2 pp. with 71 text illus. Untrimmed copy.
108. HALBERTSMA, K. J. A. Dr. A history of the theory of colour. Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1947 First (and as far as I know) the only edition, and rare. Of this work Robert Herbert has written: "The best history of color theory ever compiled, although the section devoted to the 20th century concentrates heavily upon opthamology." - Yale Library Gazette, "A color bibliography II, 1978. The author was an oculist at the Hague (Holland). Birren Catalogue 292.
8vo, orig. boards, cloth spine. 267 pp with 11 text illus and occas charts and graphs. Excellent bibliography.
109. HARDY, ARTHUR C.(ed). Handbook of Colorimetry prepared by the staff of the Color Measurement Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge: The Technology Press (M.I.T.), 1936
Colorimetry was developed only in the early twentieth century; it was a scientific method of measuring colors. "This handbook is concerned with the basis for the interpretation of the data obtained from physical measurements of colored materials, which may be expressed either in purely physical terms or in terms of the response to the normal observer as defined by the International Commission on Illumination in 1931."
Folio, orig. cloth. (vi)+86 pp with 24 tables and 23 charts.
110. HARRISON, HENRY. Instructions for the mixture of water-colours, adapted to the various styles of miniature painting; and also to landscape, flower and fruit painting. To which is added the elements of painting in water colours. Third edition. London: J. Souter, 1833
Originally published 1830 (see UCBA, I, p. 790). Fine copy of a very uncommon little treatise. Lucas, Bibliog. of water colour painting, no. 271.
12mo, orig. cloth, printed paper label on cover. viii+40 pp.
111. HARTRIDGE, H. Colours and how we see them. London: G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 1949
First edition. The Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution in 1946, intended, apparently, for boys and girls but of serious content. Hartridge was an M.D., Sc.D, etc. and professor of physic and physiology. Well illustrated with 12 color plates. Not in the Birren Catalogue.
8vo, orig. cloth. xii+158 pp. with 39 text illus and 12 color plates.
112. HATT, J. ARTHUR H. The colorist, designed to correct the commonly held theory that red, yellow and blue are the primary colors, and to supply the much needed easy method of determining color harmony. Together with a system of color nomenclature. Third edition. New York: Van Nostrand, 1925
Originally published 1908. "The book contains, for the first time in color literature, either scientific or artistic, a complete unity between science and practice, as well as a concise and consistent law for color harmony and beauty in color." Not in the Birren catalogue. A very fine copy with the two masks still bound in at the rear (these were intended to be cut out and used with the color circle).
8vo, orig. cloth. xv+84 pp. with 2 color plates, hors texte, (both color circles) and the two masks as noted above.
113. HAY, D. R. The laws of harmonious colouring, adapted to interior decorations, manufactures, and other useful purposes. Third edition. Edinburgh: Wm. & Robt. Chambers, 1836
Originally published 1828, this was Hay's first book; it went through at least six editions. Hay was a prolific writer on color (a list of his titles, some 15 of them, is given in the DNB) and he was also house painter and decorator to the Queen, Edinburgh. The history of the several editions of this book is complex and interesting: 1st, 1828, unillustrated. 2nd, 1829, unillustrated. For the third, 1836, there were three states (1) illus with uncolored diagrams in text (2) 5 plates hand-colored; (3) 5 plates made of pasted-on color chips [as in the present copy] 4th, 1838, 5 plates made of pasted-on color chips. 5th, 1844, same as ed. 4. And finally, 6th, 1847, color frontisp only, but copies exist with both hand coloring and with pasted on color chips. This history is worked out from our having had more than a dozen copies of various editions over the past 25 years. Birren Catalogue 304 lists the edition of 1844.
8vo, orig. cloth, printed paper label on front cover, inner hinges cracked. viii+72 pp. with 5 colored plates made from pasted on triangles of colored papers and 8 text diagrams. With the bookplate of Pamela and Raymond Lister.
114. HAY, D. R. The laws of harmonious colouring adapted to interior decorations with observations on the practice of house painting. Sixth edition. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1847
Originally published 1828. The colored diagrams have now been reduced to one, "yet that one contains all the colours of which the various diagrams in the former editions were composed, more correctly balanced as to their relative powers, and more permanently secured against change." The entire text has here been re-written; the second part, "On the practice of house painting" is new. It is of much value to the preservationist and restorationist. As the title suggests, Hay's special concern as House Painter and Decorator to the Queen was for the problems of his own profession, whose task was made all the more difficult by the variable lighting conditions in a room, the three dimensionality of the architectural space, and the fashionable caprices of patrons. This edition was reprinted by Baird in Philadelphia in the 1860s. NUC locates five copies.
8vo, orig. dec. cloth. x+198+8 pp. with colored frontisp (made by pasted on triangular color chips over an engraved base).
115. HAY, D. R. [DAVID RAMSAY] A nomenclature of colours applicable to the arts and natural sciences to manufactures and other purposes of general utility. Second edition, improved. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1846
Originally published 1845. This is one of Hay's scarcest books and one of the most important. It is listed in the third edition of the Birren Catalogue (1988) with the comment: "This is an early and rare collection of numbered color samples." Wurmfeld, Color documents, no. 14 with the comment: "Influenced by Field's treatise on color and pigment and Buffon's analysis of color as being parallel to music scales, Hay expounds on these theories in A nomenclature of colours...where he develops a numerical system of color relationships." As in other of Hay's books, the plates are here made up of multi-colored triangles of papers pasted on engraved stiff card stock. There are 40 plates having a total of 240 mounted and identified chips. Hay was an important writer on color; an account of his career is given in the D.N.B. (among other things he was decorator to Queen Victoria). NUC locates 4 copies only.
8vo, recent cloth, morocco label, a.e.g. (vi)+72 pp. with 40 plates each with 6 mounted triangles of color chips. Ex-lib., unobtrusive stamp in the lower blank margin of each plate, and old perforation in t.p. but a good copy. RARE.
116. HAY, D. R. The principles of beauty in colouring systematized. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1845
First edition. A most interesting book with 14 engraved plates of colour schemes, with triangular pieces of coloured paper mounted on the diagrams, six to a plate, making hexagonal shaped multi-colored diagrams. David Hay was one of the earliest writers to wed color and geometry; he regarded the two as necessarily related. Faber Birren Collection 305. Nice copy.
8vo, new cloth, deep red morocco and gilt lettering piece. iv+72 pp. and 14 colour plates. Ex-lib., old perforation in t.p. but a good clean copy. All edges gilt.
117. HAYTER, CHARLES. An introduction to perspective, practical geometry, drawing and painting; a new and perfect explanation of the mixture of colours; with practical directions for miniature, crayon, and oil painting...with...colour plates. Sixth edition. London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1845
Originally published 1813. The present edition is given a long notice by Professor Herbert: "This 1845 publication has very handsome color lithographs involving the collaboration of Owen Jones, among others. Secondary colors are in some cases derived from overprinting of the three primary ones, and "ancient" color is shown to lead towards black, whereas "modern" color insists on white. Hayter's text (and one color plate) shows the advantage of spinning color disks, in which the three primaries will form white, and he looks forward to later developments also by stressing that "certain colours" of objects, that is, local color, must give way to what the artist actually sees. He must "resign all previous acquaintance with the colours of objects, especially distant ones, and confine himself purely to optical conviction," a pragmatic emphasis upon visual versus remembered qualities which, together with the aspiration toward light, looks forward to the Impressionists." (Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, p. 14). Birren Collection 306. Vagnetti FIb15 (but not citing this edition).
8vo, modern half polished calf, spine gilt. xiv+(ii)+276 pp. with engr. author's portrait, 150 engr text illus and 5 chromo-litho. plates. Excellent copy.
118. HEMPSTEAD, LAURENE. Color and line in dress. New York: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1934
First published 1931. Professor Herbert comments: "It is true that the average fashion book is apt to put off the serious reader but these works are often more than records of the tastes of their day." The present work of special interest for the frontispiece, which is a plate with 32 mounted color chips showing named skin tones and hues found in the eyes; also color names referred to in the text. Birren Catalogue 311.
8vo, orig. cloth. xiii+355 pp. with numerous sketches by Mary Highsmith and frontisp of mounted color chips as noted above.
119. HENRY, CHARLES. Cercle chromatique, prÇsentant tous les complÇments et toutes les complements et toutes les harmonies de couleurs avec une introduction sur la thÇorie gÇnÇrale du contraste, du rythme et de la mesure. Paris: Charles Verdin, 1888
First edition of this major work of color theory, preceeding by one year the very rare (and better known) large folio format Cercle chromatique. "Charles Henry, the mathematician friend of the painters Seurat and Signac, also played a major role in the transfer of scientific concepts of color to the art world. His Cercle chromatique, although [it could] hardly be called a vulgarization, is instead characterized by a very abstruse prose, and embody's Henry's influential ideas about the relationships of pure linear direction and color to states of feeling." - R. Herbert, Yale Library Gazette, July 1874, p. 7. See also W. Homer, Seurat and the science of painting, pp. 188-21, which gives a good account of the theories and influence of Henry. Very rare. This copy contains the printed notice "Homage de l'Auteur.
Small 8vo, orig. orange printed wrappers. 168 pp. with 12 text illus. Spine worn, foxing.
120. HERBERT, ROBERT L. "A color bibliography." The Faber Birren Collection on Color in the Art Library. Yale University Library Gazette. Vol 49, no. 1., July 1974
A bibilographical essay of great importance, it occupies pages 1-49. Out of print and scarce. Of the four bibliographies in this collection this is the most useful for Professor Herbert puts the books in context with brilliant commentaries. This issue also contains "A bibliographical note on Faber Birren" by Robert Kaufmann. (This collection contains 17 titles by Mr. Birren).
8vo, orig. wraps. 149 pp with 1 color plate and 282 illus (these illus are to another article in the Bulletin).
121. HILER, HILAIRE. Color harmony and pigments. Chicago & New York: Favor, Ruhl & Co., 1942 First edition. An important book which presents the author's own system of color nomenclature and organization. The work is particularly notable for the extensive and well informed bibliography (over 500 entires). Birren Catalogue 325.
Folio, orig. cloth. (viii)+61 pp with 1 halftone, a few text illus., 4 plates (1 in color).
122. [HINCKLEY, CORNELIUS T.]. The theory of effect, embracing the contrast of light and shade, of colour and harmony. By an artist. Philadelphia: J. W. Moore, 1851
First and only edition. The chapter "Hints from various artists upon colour and effect" is taken from Letters on landscape by J. B. Pyne. Hinckley takes other sections from Sir Joshua Reynolds and includes a translation of Du Fresnoy's poem "The art of Painting." Schimmelman 259.
12mo, orig. cloth, neatly rebacked. 144+ii+8 pp. with 15 text illus. Old 19th century library stamp on t.p.
123. HIORNS, ARTHUR H. Metal colouring and bronzing. London and New York: Macmillan, 1892 First edition. An uncommon book which "embraces every kind and shade of colour which can be produced on metals by any means whatever." Birren Collection 329 classifying the book under Optics, Physics and Chemistry.
8vo, orig. cloth. xv+336 pp.
124. HOLMGREN, F. De la cÇcitÇ des couleurs dans ses rapports avec les chemins de fer et de la marine. Stockhom: Imprimerie Centrale, [1877]
Originally published in Swedish 1876-7 (see Garrison-Morton 5916). A serious railway accident in Sweden in 1875 was believed by Holmgren to be due to colour-blindness, and resulted in the above important paper dealing with the condition and its relation to railway and maritime traffic. Holmgren gives the history of color-blindness and the methods of testing for it. An English edition was also published in 1877 by the Smithsonian Institution. Birren Catalogue has this edition (no. 333) but that copy lacks the color frontisp.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers. viii+144 pp. with color litho frontisp and 5 text illus.
125. HOUSTOUN, R. A. Vision and colour vision. London & New York: Longmans, 1932
First edition. The author was a physicist and lecturer on physical optics in the University of Glasgow. He had earlier (1923) written a work entitled Light and colour, "excellent lay summaries of contemporary practice and theory of colour" to quote Professor Herbert. This title not in the Birren Collection.
8vo, orig. cloth, fine copy. viii+238 pp. with 102 text illus.
126. HOWARD, FRANK. Colour, as a means of art, being an adaptation of the experiences of professors to the practice of amateurs. London: Joseph Thomas, 1838
First edition, a good copy of a book usually found in wretched condition. "One of the more unusual early exercises in color lithography was Colour as a means of art; [it] had color illustrations printed in lithography; a description of the process was included in the text. But inks appropriate for printing on top of each other were not employed, and the resulting prints, while admirable attempts at tonal treatment, are muddled and opaque". - Friedman, Color Printing in England, no. 137. The plates in this copy are in fact very colorful. They are often said to be Hullmandel's first lithographs printed in three or four colours, but this has been questioned (see Printing Historical Society, no. 17, Gascoigne). Gascoigne suggests that there is only one printed color with all the rest added by hand. That does indeed appear to be the case in this present copy. See also G. Wakeman, Victorian book illustration, the technical revolution, p. 40. Faber Birren Collection 340 (D).
8vo, orig cloth, neatly rehinged, orig. backstrip preserved. 106+ii pp. with 18 plates printed in colours with hand colouring added, each plate with dust sheet.
127. HOWARD, FRANK. Lessons on colour, being an exemplification of the principles described in Colour as a means of art; as applied to representations of nature. Parts I-V [all published?]. London: Joseph Thomas & Ackermann & Co., 1841
Rare. As stated in the title, the present work is intended as an illustration as Colour as a means of art (see item above). This is not, however, a "volume II" to that work but a completely separate item. It consists of five parts, each in the original printed wrappers, each containing three hand-colored lithographed plates of paintings after old and modern masters (e.g. Cupy, Ruysdeal, the modern manner, Titian, Hobbima, Turner, etc). As far as we can determine these five parts were all published. Rare; not in the UCBA, not in Abbey Life nor in any of the many bibliographies at hand.
4to. 5 parts, each in orig. printed wraps., stitched. Each part contains 3 hand-col litho plates. The final part lacks the rear wrappers.
128. HUMMEL, J. J. The dyeing of textile fabrics. Seventh thousand. London, Paris & Melbourne: Cassell & Co., 1890
Originally published 1885. The author was Professor and Director of the Dyeing Department of the Yorkshire College, Leeds. The work was indended as a text "giving exact scientific and practical information." The final chapter is a long series of "tables of colour tests" for the detection of colours on dyed fabrics. It was popular and went through many editions as late as 1909. Lawrie 344.
12mo, orig. cloth, nice copy. xii+534 pp. with 97 text illus.
129. HUNDERTPFUND, LIBERTAT. The art of painting restored to its simplest and surest principles, translated from the German. London: David Bogue, 1849
First English edition of what the translator claims to be the first philosophical theory of colour applicable to the art of painting written by a practicing artist (in contrast to several written by philosophers or scientists). The author claims to have discovered the method of painting with opposite colours and illustrates this in his unusual color printed plates. The appendix discusses technical matters: the preparation of oil colours, the washing, burning, and grinding of pigments, oils, grounds, priming and varnish making. Ruhemann/Plesters (page 389) states that "the work is not concerned with restoration, but it interesting to note, in view of the date, that in the section on varnish preparation the author expresses the view that only mastic or dammar in turpentine are safe and suitable varnishes for paintings." Birren Collection 341. UCBA, p. 891. NUC locates 6 copies.
8vo, original cloth, xi+122+(ii) pp with 23 plates of which 3 engraved and printed on thin card (one each of a palette and brushes), 20 in color lithography and a large folding chart. Spine faded; hinges partly cracked, inner hinges weak.
130. HUNT, EDMUND. Colour vision. An essay discussing existing theories, explaining views hitherto incompletely published, and comprising illustrated descriptions of important new experiments. Glasgow: John Smith & Son; London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1892
First edition. A curious and apparently rare book, the product of some fifty years work according to the preface. The author was aware of and refers to the major authors who wrote on the subject before him. There is no indication as to the author's profession (i.e. medical doctor, professor, etc); perhaps he was a dedicated amateur.
8vo, orig. cloth. 122 pp. with 3 fdg. litho plates (on printed in colors). The final plate has minor paper repaires (almost invisible).
131. HURST, GEORGE H. Colour. A handbook of the theory of colour. Second edition, revised by H. B. Stocks. London: Scott, Greenwood & Son, 1916
Originally published 1900. "Excellent general manual incorporating Helmholtz, Ruskin, and physiology of vision." - Herbert, "A color bibliography, II, p. 153. Hurst intended this work for artists, painters, dyers, calico printers, etc. In the compilation of this book the author relied upon the manuals of Chevreul, Benson, Rood, Church, etc. The plates, printed in chromolithography, are bold, bright, and exceptionally attractive. Birren Catalogue 346.
8vo, orig. cloth. viii+160 pp. with 11 color plates.
132. HURST, GEORGE H. A manual of painters' colours, oils and varnishes. Fifth edition, revised by Noel Heaton, with a chapter on varnishes by M. B. Blacker. London: Charles Griffin & Co., 1913
Originally published 1892, a long standard work. This edition has been enlarged over the first by 38 pages. "A major work that retains its value. All aspects of pigments, their manufacture and use, as well as description of paint supports and vehicles. - Herbert, Yale Lib. Gazette, "Color. Bib. II", (1978, p. 153. Birren Collection 347.
8vo, orig. cloth. xii+528 pp. with 89 illus. A good copy.
133. INDERGAND, MICHEL. Bibliographie de la couleur. Paris: SociÇtÇ des Amis de la Bibliotheque Forney, 1984
An extensive bibliography, with 1516 entries. Arranged according to subject areas (generalities, arts, arts appliques, sciences humaines, sciences naturelles, technologie, etc). Includes also thematic index as well as one-alphabet index of authors. Useful.
Tall 4to, orig. printed wrappers. xxiii+111 pp.
134. INTERNATIONAL PRINTING INK CORP. Three monographs on color. I.Color chemistry. II. Color as light. III. Color in use. New York: Research Labs of the I.P.I.C., 1935
First edition. Concerned with organic color chemistry and theory of light and the spectrum. Scientific theory presented for an educated lay audience. Vol III deals with the use of color for the artist and the designer; it is complele with the stiff card mask to demonstrate the principles of the hue relationship.
4to, 3 vols in orig. slipcase. Each vol in orig. paper boards. 18; 21 and 18+11 color plates with 1 mask and 2 traps laid in.
135. ITTEN, JOHANNES. Kunst der Farbe. Subjektives Erleben und Objektives Erkennen als Wege zur Kunst. Ravensburg: Otto Maier, 1961
First edition of one of the most important color treatises of the mid-20th century. This first edition is rather rare as it was printed in a small edition and is laboriously illustrated with 140 tipped in color plates. "Itten (1888-1967), a Swiss, studied color theory with Adolf Holzel and was further influenced by the works of Goethe, Shoppenhauer, Runge and Chevreul. He had his own school in Vienna in 1916. Itten was at the Bauhaus at Wiemar from 1919 to 1923....The art of color was originally published in Germany in 1961 and that same year was translated into English. Since then it has been published in French, Italian and Japanese. Itten structures colors according to a twelve hue color sphere renimiscent of Runge's earlier model. He analyzes color according to seven categories of contrast - hue, light and dark, cold and warm, complementary, simultaneous, saturation, extension - and then shows how these apply to modes of color "impression," "expression," "Spatial," and "compositional" ideas. Despite this explanation of design principles he proclaims the subjective nature of color relations and, through an analysis of student work as well as of selected masterworks, shows the use of color in art." Wurmfeld, Color documents, no. 57. The Birren catalogue lists only the English edition.
Square small folio, orig. cloth. 155 pp. with 140 tipped in plates, mostly in color. Printed on a fine quality soft rag paper.
136. ITTEN, JOHANNES. The art of color. The subjective experience and objective rationale of color. Translated by Ernst von Haagen. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973
First edition to be published in America. See notes to item above.
Small square folio, orig. cloth in d.w. 155 pp. with 174 color illus and 28 color plates. Nice copy.
137. JACOB, M. (ed). Le Teinturier Universal. Echo des applications des matiäres colorantes aux arts et a l'industrie. Journal speciale de la teinture et de l'appret des Çtoffes, de la production, et de la prÇparation des matieres tinctoriales, de l'impression et de la fabrication des papiers peints - tannage et coloration des cuirs. Paris, 1860-1864 (Vols I-IV, all published)
A fine untrimmed and unopened set in the original printed wrappers, containing all 195 mounted samples of dyed cloths, papers and leathers. A rare work, even in odd volumes; the Union list of serials cites only two complete runs and no odd volumes.
4 vols. Small folio, orig. printed wraps to vols 1-3; vol 4 has new paper wraps. 192; 192; 192 and 192 pages with 51, 48, 48 and 48 mounted samples.
138. JACOBS, MICHAEL. The study of color with lessons and exercises. Rumsen, New Jersey: Prismatic Art Co., 1956
Originally published 1927; this is the sixth printing. This book is partly in the form of a workbook; you were to study the text and mix the colors and fill in the squares. There are twenty-three color charts; the first eight have been been neatly filled in with a total of 240 colors, obviously done by a serious student. Jacobs (1877-1958) was a sculptor and portrait and landscape painter. His system emphasizes the psychological effect of color combinations. A note on him is found in Wurmfeld, Color documents, no. 51. Birren Catalogue 359. The hand-colored charts in this copy would make in interesting addition to a dislpay of color books.
4to, orig. cloth. xiv+161 pp. with 15 plates (13 of which are colored) and 8 plates which have been hand colored.
139. JACOBSON, EGBERT. Basic color. An interpretation of the Ostwald Color System. Chicago: Paul Theobald, 1948
First edition. F. W. Ostwald (1853-1932) was a major physical chemist and color scientist; a good account of his work, including color science, is given in the supplement volume to the DSB. In Germany his system was taught at the Bauhaus at Dessau. In the USA it found a major advocate in Edgert Jacobson, who was the Art Director for the Container Corporation of America. Through the work of Jacobson and E. Zeishold, Ostwald's system, as presented in The Color Harmony Manual (see next item) became the accepted standard in America. Birren Catalogue 360.
4to, orig. cloth. (xii)+207+1 pp with hundreds of color illus printed throughout the text. Includes 48 color triangles, 2 for each of the twenty-four hues.
140. JACOBSON, EGBERT, WALTER C. GRANVILLE & CARL E. FOSS. The color harmony manual. Chicago: Color Laboratories Division, Container Corporation of America, 1942
First edition; rare and important. This is the American version of the famous Ostwald color system. This set unfortunately lacks one of the twelve folders of color chips, but the text and instruction volume is present. It consists of 11 (ex 12) folders of movable enamelled color chips in triangular arrangements of hues. Each folder contains of 56 chips. The colors were developed by Carl E. Foss. The importance of this work is explained in the DSB (Supplement volume, under Ostwald). Wurmfeld, Color Documents, no 50. The real achievement of the Ostwald system was in the systematic presentation of all hues in their variations. A beautiful and rare work. Birren Catalogue 361. I have recently seen this item offered at $1500.00.
12mo. 11 (ex 12) "volumes" (i.e. folders) plus text volume in orig. cloth in orig. slipcase. With over 600 movable color chips. Cloth a bit worn.
141. JEFFRIES, B[ENJAMIN] JOY. Color-Blindness: its dangers and its detection. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1879
First edition. "Jeffries (1833-1915) was one of the first American ophthalmologists to take an active interest in the study of color blindness...this monograph was the first major contribution on the subject by an American and came at a time when European governments were already taking steps to guard against the occupational hazards of color blindness. Jeffries was the only authoritative American physician to research and call attention to the problems of color blindness among railway engineers, ships'captains, and other industrial workers..." - Rutkow OP28. Not in the Birren Catalogue. The three color original publisher's cloth binding, despite its slight discoloration, is of particular interest.
8vo, orig. cloth, head and tail of spine a bit chipped. Lower third of spine faded; light spot where a paper label has been removed. Ex-lib., old blind stamp on t.p. but a good copy. xx+312 pp. with color printed frontisp.
142. JENNINGS, ARTHUR SEYMOUR. Paint and colour mixing. Sixth edition. London: Spon, 1921 Nice copy. Originally published 1902. "Containing over 300 samples of actual oil and water-paints and water-colours of various colours, with 17 coloured plates". Although the title page calls for 17 colour plates, the work is complete with 14 as called for in the "Description of the coloured plates". The book is a recipe manual of actual mixtures, for which manufacturers and types of pigments are listed, by the editor of the Decorator. The mounted samples include semi-paste gloss paints, flat wall paints, wood stains, sanitary distemper paints, flat enamels, gloss paints, wood preserving stains, Winsor & Newton artists' water colours, etc. One simply cannot adequately describe these books in words; they have to be seen. Birren Collection 363 (edition of 1910). Of this edition the NUC locates 4 copies.
8vo, orig. cloth. (iii)+x+243+(x) pp. with 14 colour plates as noted above. Very nice copy.
143. JENNINGS, ARTHUR SEYMOUR. Paint and colour mixing. Seventh edition. London: Trade Papers Pub. Co.; New York: Spon and Chamberlain, 1926
Despite the identical title with the item above, the fifteen plates of mounted paint and varnish samples are entirely different. Each of the plates is in fact an advertisement by the maker of the paint samples shown. Companies include Combinol, Minerva Paints, Hygeia Paints, Naylor Brothers, Muralbo, Winsor & Newton, etc.
8vo, orig. cloth. (vi)+341+xii) pp. with 15 plates of mounted paint samples. Base of spine has an old paper label blacked out, else a good copy.
144. JENNINGS, J. ELLIS, M.D. Color-vision and color-blindness. A practical manual for railroad surgeons. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Company, 1896
Originally published London 1895; this is the first American edition. "Color perception was commonly studied by the end of the century as part of experimental psychology, and it had been shown to be of use to industry. Color blindness was an obvious liability for railway employees, and lack of color sensitivity, although not so severe as color blindness was a disadvantage in several aspects of textile production. J. E. Jennings offered a general manual of color perception whose crudest purpose was to eliminate color-blind employees on the railways, but whose general aim was to give railway doctors sound advice on color vision." - R. L. Herbert, Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, p. 21. The frontispiece, printed in colors, illustrates Holmgren's tests for color-blindness. Birren Catalogue 364.
8vo, orig. cloth. xii+132 pp. with chromo-litho frontisp. and 27 text illus. Nice copy.
145. JENNISON, FRANCIS H. The manufacture of lake pigments from artificial colours. London: Scott Greenwood & Co., 1900
First edition. The plates consist of mounted strips of brightly coloured papers; not all of the strips are filled in but the book appears exactly as issued (i.e. nothing is obviously missing or removed; also this copy collates exactly with another we had several years ago). All editions are uncommon. Not in the Birren Collection. Not in the Edelstein Collection.
8vo, orig. cloth. (vi)+136+36 pp. with 16 plates with a total of 89 mounted coloured strips of paper (of a possible total of 96).
146. JOHNSON, GEORGE LINDSAY. Photography in colours. A text book for amateurs. With a chapter on kinematography in the colours of nature. Second (revised) edition. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1914
First published 1911. An important work which went through at least five editions. It is illustrated with 8 plates in color. Roosens/Salu 2250.
8vo, orig. cloth. vi+243+(vi) pp. with 12 plates (5 in color) and numerous illus in the text.
147. KORNERUP, A. & J. H. WANSCHER. Color atlas. A guide to accurate color matching. New York: Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1961
First edition. 1266 systematically arranged color swatches on 30 double-page openings. The majority of the text is devoted to a color dictionary, arranged alphabeticaly frm Absinthe Green to Yolk Yellow. "It will aid the housewife in decorating her home, the designer in combining fabrics, the painter in mixing pigments, the gardener, the stamp collector, the architect, the artist, indeed, anyone who needs to make a color judgement or selection." Birren Catalogue 389.
12mo, orig. cloth in d.w. 224 pp with 60 pages of color swatches. Printed in Denmark. The original printed stiff card trap still in the pocket inside rear cover.
148. KORNERUP, A. & J. H. WANSCHER. Methuen handbook of colour. Second edition. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1967
"The second edition of the Methuen handbook of color is the first authoritative pocket color-book to appear in English covering the essentials of color practice, and including an international dictionary of colors with British Standard and Munsell equivalents." Birren Catalogue 388.
12mo, orig. cloth in d. w.243 pp. with 60 pages of color swatches. The original printed stiff card trap is still in the flap inside rear cover.
149. LACOUTRE, CHARLES. RÇpertoire chromatique. Solution raisonnÇe et pratique des problemes les plus usuels dans l'Çtude et l'emploi des couleurs. Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Fils, 1890
First edition. "Of French standards, one of the most interesting is that of Lacoutre, who, in 1890, based his beautiful plates upon the concept of optical mixture. The engraved lines bearing the colored inks were nearer or farther apart according to the degree of paleness required, so that the greater or lesser amount of white paper showing through (and the greater or lesser amount of another set of engraved color-lines) would produce the effect - the colors of the inks themselves not being varied. This remarkable parallel to Neo-Impressionism did not acquire any popularity however, because the algebraic complexity of the author's nomemclature offered no compensating advantages." - R. Herbert, Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, p. 10. Birren Collection 400. Wurmfeld, Color documents, 36. Hope and Walsh, Color compendium (1990), p. 331.
Small folio, orig. printed wrappers. xii+144 pp. with 29 color printed plates, each with dust sheet, 9 wood-engr. illus and frontisp with printed overslip on tissue. In this copy the frontisp is bound preceeding plate I rather than facing the title page.
150. LADD-FRANKLIN, CHRISTINE. Colour and colour-theories. London: Kegan-Paul & Co., 1929 First edition. A work of serious scholarship, dealing with the perception of color. "Dr. Ladd-Franklin has been the first (and is still too nearly the only) physiologist to consider colour always in the light of the development of the colour-sense." Not in the Birren Catalogue.
8vo, orig. cloth. xv+287 pp with frontisp in color, 8 color plates and 25 text illus.
151. LE BLON, J. C. Presenting a facsimile edition of Coloritto by J. C. LeBlon (1667-1741) inventor and developer of the Red-Yellow-Blue theory of color printing. With an introduction by Faber Birren. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980
The original work, published 1723/26, is one of the rarest and most fascinating works in the literature of color. This facsimile edition produced from the 1756 French edition, with the text in both French and English. Birren's introduction is extensive and scholarly.
12mo, orig. cloth in d.w. xx+71+(vi) pp with color frontisp.
152. LEIDEL, HENRY. Hints on tints and how to mix them illustrated by one hundred and seventy-five specimens of tints with an introductory essay on color and colors. First edition. New York: Henry Leidel, 1893 First edition. A rare and pleasing little book, with 6 pages of individually mounted color chips, 30 to a page (this copy lacks one chip from plate V). Leidel was the author of several artist's manuals and also dealt in artist's oil colors (the last six pages are ads for his paints in collapsible tubes). He also carried varnishes and brushes. Not in the Birren Collection. NUC locates one copy only (DLC).
8vo, orig. printed wrappers. 43+(ii)+(vi) pp with 6 ff containing 174 (ex 175) mounted and named color chips. Spine worn.
153. LIBONIS, L. TraitÇ pratique de la couleur dans la nature et dans les arts. Composition - mÇlange - soliditÇ - jeu et nuance - des couleurs, etc. Paris: Henri Laurens, nd [ca 1880]
An interesting book with 8 plates in water colour identifying 82 named hues. Books with named color samples are of special importance; in her Artists pigments c1600-1835 R. D. Harley lists only ten of them (pp. 179-181). The text is a general manual, drawn largely from Chevreul. Herbert, Color Bib. II, p. 156. Birren Collection Cat. 417. NUC locates one copy only (MB).
8vo, orig. printed wrappers. 64 pp. with 7 text illus. and 8 plates in water color.
154. LOVELL, R. GOULBURN. Courage in colour applied to personal attire and home surroundings. A simple exposition based upon the balanced primaries. London: Charles Griffin & Co., n.d. [ca. 1930]
As do so many of these color books, this has an unusual feature in the rear pocket: two perforated revolving disks, one a proportion disk, the other a selecting disc, both to be laid over the two circular color plates in the book (composition of colours and the chromatic circle). In fine condition. Not in the Birren Collection.
4to, orig. card wraps, printed label on front cover, in printed d.j. 26 pp. with 6 color plates and 2 disks in rear pocket.
155. LOVIBOND, JOSEPH W. Measurement of light and colour sensations. A new method of investigating the phenomena of light and colour by means of the selective absorption in coloured glass, graded into scales of equivalent colour value. London: George Gill & Sons, [1893]
First edition. Lovibond here illustrates and describes his "Tintometer". His work basically was directed toward the production of reliable color standards for manufacturing and scientific purposes, as well as the better understanding of color perception and vision. He worked out of The Colour Laboratories, Salisbury, Wilts. Duncan, Bib of glass, 8111 (Duncan lists a total of 6 books or articles by Lovibond). Not in the Birren Collection. This copy is inscribed "Dr. Oliver with the author's comps."
8vo, orig. cloth. 132 pp. with 13 text illus, 23 tables, 9 color charts and 13 color printed plates. Mounted on the verso of the t.p. is an albumen photo of the tintometer apparatus.
156. LUCAS, JOHN & CO. Gibsboro Color & Varnish Works. Price list. Philadelphia, 1887
Nicely printed catalogue of ready-mixed paints. It is unillustrated but laid in is a color card of Lucas ready mixed paints showing 18 combinations of 3 colors each plus six standard base colors (for a total of 60 mounted paint chips). The Lucas Company was one of the major manufacturers of ready-mixed paints in the late 19th century. A fine exhibition item.
8vo, orig. printed wraps. 24 pp. Color card: 12mo, stiff card stock, opens out to 12 leaves with 60 mounted chips on one side; letterpress on the reverse.
157. LUSCHER, DR. MAX. The Luscher color test. Translated and edited by Ian A. Scott. London: New York: Random House, 1969
Originally published in German, l969. The principle of the test is that accurate psychological information can be gained about a person through his choices and rejection of colors. Inside the rear cover in an envelope are 8 color cards. Birren Collection 435-436, (German editions only).
8vo, orig. cloth in d.w. 185 pp. with 8 color cards.
158. MACDONALD, JOHN DENIS. Sound and colour, their relations, analogies and harmonies. London: Longmans, Green &c., 1869
First edition, very uncommon. Over the course of the nineteenth century, musical analogies had been used with increasing frequency to explain the intangible qualities of painting, until at the end of the century there was a widespread belief in the interrelations of colour and music. Birren Collection 437. NUC locates seven copies.
8vo, orig. cloth. (viii)+86+(ii) pp. with 2 plates and 16 text diagrams of which 15 hand coloured.
159. MAERZ, A. & M. REA PAUL. A dictionary of color. Second edition. New York: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1950
Originally published 1930. "This work is primarily intended as a reference for the individual who seeks to relate colors with the names by which they are commonly identified. The following pages contain the most extensive range of colors as yet published, together with a list of practically all recorded color names in use up to this time in the English language." A standard and important work. Birren Catalogue 441. The authors were professionals in the field of color; Maerz was director of the American Color Research Laboratory; Paul was Color Consultant, Raho Color Clinic.
4to, orig. cloth. viii+208 pp with 56 color plates each with a facing "key" plate in letterpress. Printed on fine coated paper. Old stamp blacked out in magic marker on flyleaf.
160. MARTEL, CHARLES [pseudonym for THOMAS DELS]. The principles of colouring in painting adapted from Chevreul. Twenty-second thousand. With preface by J. Scott Taylor. London: Windsor & Newton, n.d. [ca. 1880]
Originally published about 1850-55. A popular book, this went through a least fifteen editions. It is not in the Faber Birren Collection at Yale.
8vo, orig. printed cloth covered stiff card wrappers. 68+64 pp. of ads.
161. MARTIN, L. C. Colour and methods of color reproduction with chapters on color printing and colour photography by William Gamble. London: Blackie & Son, 1923
First edition. The author was a D.Sc. and lecturer in optical engineering at the Imperial College of Science and Technology. Chapters: the nature of light and colour; colour analysis and systhesis; the colours of material objects; colour in regard to illumination; colour in human experience; colouring materials; the eye and its reactions to light - pshotometry; instruments for colour measurement, etc. A scarce and important book. Not in the Birren catalogue.
8vo, orig. cloth in d.w. xiv+187+ii pp. with 73 text illus and 3 color plates.
162. MAXWELL, J. CLERK. On the theory of compound colours, and the relations of the colours of the spectrum. [Offprint from the Philosophical Transactions, 1860]
Maxwell (1831-79) was a physicist whose work in color vision and theory influenced artists. He created the science of quantitative colorimetry. A long essay on his color researches is given in the DSB and and an appraisal of his work vis-a-vis the art world is given by Martin Kemp, in The science of art, pp. 312-315. The plates to the present work illustrate his famous color triangles. Not in the Birren catalogue.
4to, disbound, modern blue paper wrappers.Pp. 57-84 with 2 litho plates.
163. MERIMEE. J. F. L. The art of painting in oil and in fresco. London: Whittaker & Co., 1839
First edition in English; originally published Paris, 1830; translated into English by W. B. Sarsfield Taylor. It was called by Faber Birren "perhaps the most important book on painting of the early 19th century..." (History of color in painting, p. 55). The subtitle states the work is "a history of the various processes and materials employed, from its discovery, by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, to the present time...with original observations on the rise and progress of British Art, the French and English chromatic scales, and theories of colouring by W.B.S.T." Chapter six deals with conservation and restoration and is given a good analysis in Ruhemann/Plesters, pp. 384-5. Noted also by Mayer in The Artist's handbook: "one of the first of the carefully written books on methods and materials; an authentic account of the knowledge of the present day." (p. 352). Also contains information on pigments; multiple references in R. D. Harley, Artist's pigments. Birren Collection 455.
8vo, orig. cloth. xliv+371 pp. with 2 hand-col. plates (the English chromatic scale of M. Harris and the French chromatic scale of Merimee). Inner rear hinge cracked.
164. MONACHESI, MRS. NICOLA DE RIENZI. A manual for china painters. Being a practical and comprehensive treatise on the art of painting china and glass with mineral colors. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1902 First published 1897; this is an unchanged reprint. Appended to the end of the book are 5 plates of painting, grounding and new colors with 136 individually named chips. Solon, p. 296. Duncan 8934.
8vo, orig. cloth. xii+286 pp with about 20 text illus and 5 plates of color samples. Nice copy.
165. MORATO, FULVIO PELLEGRINO. Significato de colori, e de mazzolli. Venice: Domenico Nicolino, 1564
First published 1545. A rare work dealing with the symbolism of colors. A later edition (Venice, 1618) is listed in the Cicognara catalogue no. 178 with the note "Questi opuscoletti non sono comuni, ma banno, relazione alle allegorie, e agli emblemi piu che alla pittura." The Cicognara copy is bound with Sicilio Araldo, Trattato dei colori nelle arme (Venice, 1606). Our copy is also bound with that same work, but an earlier (in fact the first) edition of 1565 (separately catalogued here under Araldo). Of this edition of Morato the NUC locates two copies (NY Pub Liby and Newberry Liby). It was a popular book in the sixteenth century; the NUC lists editions of 1545 (the first); also 1547, 1551, 1558; 1564; 1593 and 1599. These days sixteenth century editions of works on the subject of color of any sort are very rare. This copy was found in Rome.
8vo, 17th cent. polished calf, gilt spine. Unpaginated. 27 leaves [54 pp]. Bound with works by Occulti (catalogued here separately) and Araldo.
166. MORRILL, GEORGE H. & CO. Printing and Lithographic inks. [Specimen]. Boston, New York, Chicago, n.d. [ca. 1900]
A handsome catalogue presenting 57 leaves of colored inks suitable for printing halftones and for all kinds of catalogue and commercial work. The final leaf is a specimen of Morrill's gold ink, printed on a deep blue matte finish paper. Price list also bound in. The Morrill Co. issued several ink specimens in the latter years of the 19th century and all are rare; none are listed in Romaine, McKinstry, St. Bride Catalogue, etc. As do the best ink specimens this one gives pleasure to leaf through.
Oblong 4to, orig. cloth, title handsomely printed on cover. Letterpress leaf of lntro; price list and 57 leaves of colored ink specimens. Binding rubbed; inner hinges weak.
167. MUCKLEY, WILLIAM J. A handbook for painters and art students on the character, nature and use of colors. Their permanent, or fugitive qualities and the vehicles proper to employ, and short remarks on the practice of painting in oil and water colours. Third edition. London: Bailliere, Tindall & Cox, 1885
Originally published 1880. The first half of the book is devoted to colors; pigments, permanent colours, semi-permanent colours, fugitive colours, vehicles or mediums, their use in combination with colours, etc. Not known to Ruhemann/Plesters.
8vo, orig. cloth. xiv+126 pp.
168. MUNSELL, A. H. A color notation. A measured color system, based on the three qualities, hue, value and chroma with illustrative models, charts, and a course of study arranged for teachers. 2nd edition, revised and enlarged. Boston: George H. Ellis Co., 1907
Originally published 1905. This second edition was the first one to include color plates; there are five of them. This work had a long and active life; see next item.
8vo, orig. boards, cloth spine, paper label. 113+(1)+i pp. with numerous text illus and 5 color plates. Old name crossed out with black magic marker.
169. MUNSELL, A. H. A color notation. An illustrated system defining all colors and their relations by measured scales of hue value and chroma. Tenth edition, edited and rearranged. Baltimore: Munsell Color Co., 1954
First published 1905. This edition has an introduction by Royal B. Farnum, former director of RISD. A book intended for school teachers by a noted authority. This copy is probably unique in that it retains the laid in four page color chart together with the small envelope with all of the 26 unmounted color chips. This is a miraculous survival! Surprisingly, not in the Birren catalogue.
8vo, orig. cloth, fine copy. 67 pp. with 13 text illus. Color chart and envelope of color chips loosely laid in.
170. MUNSELL, A. H. A grammar of color. Arrangements of Strathmore papers in a variety of printed color combinations according to the Munsell Color System. Mittineague, Mass: The Strathmore Paper Co., 1921 First edition. A beautiful book presenting a system for the measurement of color and for its orderly use, and demonstrating this system upon a number of cover papers selected from the Strathmore lines. The method of showing the color combinations is ingenious and attractive and involves folding flaps and colored inks printed on different colored stocks. Three other titles by Munsell are included in Color Documents (46, 47, 48) with a good note. Birren Catalogue 600. Also given a good note by Robert Herbert in the Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, p. 16.
Folio, orig. boards, cloth spine, printed paper label on cover. Title printed in colors. 28 pp of text; 2 color plates hors texte and 19 sheets of double page color combinations on multi colored stock.
171. MUNSELL, ALBERT H. A grammar of color. A basic treatise on the color system of Albert H. Munsell. Edited and with an introduction by Faber Birren. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1969
In this expanded new edition Birren has edited the original material and added new chapters, which interpret in modern terms Munsell's concepts of beauty and the universal quality of his color order and method of notation. Birren Catalogue 64.
Square 8vo, orig. stiff printed wrappers. 96 pp. with 47 text illus and 8 color plates.
172. MUNSELL COLOR COMPANY. Munsell Color Atlas. Special pocket edition. Baltimore: Munsell Color Company, [ca. 1925]
An extremely rare Munsell color atlas, this pocket edition must have been produced in very few copies as the title page and copyright notice are in typescript. This copy is inscribed: "Mr. H. Lee Hoffman Jr. with appreciation of your interest, A.E. Munsell. 1928." Albert Henry Munsell (1858-1918) was a famous color theorist; A.E. was probably his son. "In 1915, Munsell's Color Atlas was published, and in 1918 he formed the Munsell Color Company. His unique system is based on three visual attributes - hue, value (lightness) and chroma (saturation) - and is arranged in equal visual color steps. The shape is irregular because Munsell wanted to show that not all colors achieve the same degree of chromaticity at the same light/dark value." - Hope & Walch, The color compendium, p. 212.
12mo, orig. cloth (spine stripped), title label on front cover. T.p., copyright leaf (in typescript). 9 pages, each page with an average of 35 small mounted squares of color.
173. MUNSELL COLOR COMPANY. Munsell Book of Color, opposite hue edition. (WITH) Directions for the use of the charts in the Munsell Book of Color. Baltimore, Md: M.C.C., 1950
A fine copy with all of the color charts intact within the original glassine sleeves and with the original instruction book, masks and color cards still present. "The Munsell Book of Color provides an orderly arrangement of standard papers which serve as guides for the measurement and notation of all colors. These standards represent equally spaced divisions of the three attributes of color known in the Munsell System of Color Notation as HUE, VALUE and CHROMA." - Direction book. Laid into this copy is an extra item, the NBC Color Book which was apparently prepared for the NBC Television Network Operations Department. This consists of one leaf of the Munsell Neutral Gray Scale, 10 leaves of color charts with a total of 201 mounted color chips and 4 full sheets of colored papers and one leaf of mimeographed text. Prepared in limited numbers, it is obviously rare. As is the Book of Color itself.
4to, orig. leather chemise covers, title in gilt on cover. 11 leaves each in glassine, held together by three screw bolts. With approximately 1100 neatly mounted color chips. Direction book: 12mo, orig. wraps, 10 pp with 3 masks and 10 color cards laid in. NBC Color Book as described above.
174. MUNSELL COLOR CO. Munsell color charts for plant tissues. Second edition, 1963. Baltimore, Md., 1963
A rare little color book with 17 charts with a total of 322 individually mounted color chips according to the Munsell system. Designed to provide a means for the exact determination and permanent recording of the color of plant tissues. Includes the separate laid-in pamphlet with directions for using the charts as well as the six masks. Not in the Birren Catalogue.
12mo, orig. fabricoid, 6-ring binder. 6 pp of prelims, 17 leaves of color chips and 8 page pamphlet laid in plus 6 masks. Excellent condition.
175. MUNSELL COLOR SYSTEM. CLELAND, T. M. A practical description of the Munsell Color System, with suggestions for its use. Baltimore: Munsell Color Co., 1937
Originally published 1921; this is the third edition, revised in 1937. This essay is essentially adapted from the Grammar of color published by the Strathmore Company (see item above).
8vo, orig. printed stiff wrappers. 19 pp. with numerous text illus.
176. NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS. The ISCC-NBS method of designating colors and a dictionary of color names. National Bureau of Standards Circular 553. Washington: U.S. Govt. Prtg. Office, 1955 First edition. "The purpose of this dictionary is to assist the scientist, businessman and layman to understand the different color vocabularies used in the many fields of art, science and industry. Some of these vocabularies are very similar, in fact they borrow from one another, while others are nearly or completely unintelligible to workers in another field. The dictionary will serve not only as a record of the meanings of the 7,500 individual color names listed but it will also enable anyone to translate from one color vocabulary to another." Very uncommon.
Tall 8vo, orig. cloth. (vi)+158 pp with 12 text illus.
177. [NEWMAN, JAMES]. The principles and practice of harmonious colouring in oil, water and photographic colours, especially as applied to photographs on paper, glass and silver-plate, by an artist-photographer. Fifth edition. London: James Newman, 1865
Originally published 1859 or 60. The work was popular; the author states that four large editions were exhausted in five years. This edition has been revised; new material includes various methods of colouring a picture at the back and rendering the print transparent; the imitations of ivory miniatures; coloring on opal glass, etc. The work was reprinted in Philadelphia in 1866. Roosens/Salu 2171.
8vo, orig. cloth, dark green polished calf spine, gilt. xii+116 pp of ads. Bookplate of Sir David Solomans, Bart. Nice copy.
178. NEWTON, SIR ISAAC. Opticks: or, a treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colours of light. The third edition, corrected. London: William & John Innys, 1721
Originally published in 1704, Newton's Opticks "is still considered the most important contribution to the science of color." - The color compendium, p. 219. "Newton's essential discovery of the nature of color had been announced in 1672, but knowledge of it had been imperfectly available. His central explanation was that unified light, passed through a prism, exhibited the rainbow spectrum of color (others had seen this, but had not explained it), because of the different degrees of refrangibility of the hues. Sunlight was therefore the combination of all the colors, each of which could be shown to exist in a "homogeneal" state that could not be further refracted." - R. Herbert, Yale Lib. Gazette, (July 1974), p. 6. In the second edition of 1717 the queries at the end were increased from 16 to 31, and include the famous 28th Query on the nature of light. Newton added a few corrections and expanded the final sentence in the third edition of 1721. The queries were the most important element of the Opticks to future generations, as they sketched out the lines of future research. There is much reference literature on this great work; see for example M. Kemp, The science of art, pp. 285-6. Babson 136. Wallis 178 (wrongly calling for only 11 plates). Birren Catalogue 477 (the Latin edition of 1706). The first edition of 1704 appears with frequency in the book auction records; the later editions are distinctly more uncommon.
8vo, recent calf antique style, marbled sides, new end papers. viii+382+(ii) pp of publishers ads with 12 fdg. engr. plates. Scattered light foxing but a good copy.
179. NEWTON. ALGAROTTI, COUNT. The philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton explained in six dialogues on light and colours between a lady and the author. Glasgow: Robert Urie, 1765
Originally published in Italian in Naples, 1737; the first English edition appeared in London, 1764. "In this lively popularization of Newton's views on light, we find, as is typical of Algarotti's writings, Raphael rubbing shoulders with Racine, and Newton being paired with Palladio. The general message is that there is a classic canon of order and beauty which is revealed by the greatest art and science, no less by Newton than by the classic painters, sculptors, architects, writers and musicians who had preceeded him." - M. Kemp, The science of art, p. 142 with much more on Algarotti. Geoffrey Cantor states: "Algarotti intended his popular exposition of optical theory for ladies of leisure, who were typified by his 'Marchioness,' and he portrayed the subject of optics as a 'Daughter of Leisure.' This book, tailored to a female audience which was assumed to be uninterested in experiments, diagrams and the practical applications of of science, took the form of an intimate, and at times salacious, dialogue between the 'Marchioness' and her tutor." - Optics after Newton, p. 46. Babson 145-7 cites the first edition, a 1739 Venice edition and the 1739 London edition but not the present Glascow edition. Gray 197 noting that the English translation was by Mrs. Elizabeth Carter.
12mo, orig. sheep, spine lettering piece; hinges cracked. ii+xiv+17-280 pp. Clean tear (no loss) in the margin of pp. 191/2; a few wormholes in the blank margins of the last few leaves.
180. OCCOLTI, CORONATO DA CANEDOLO. Trattado de colori, nuovamente stampato con l'aggiunta del significato d'alcuni doni, dal medesimo data in luce. Parma: Presso Seth Viotto, 1568
First edition, rare and noted as rare as early as 1821 in the Cicognara catalogue of that date. "E raro il trovare esemplari conservatissimi, come sono tutti quelli della nostra collezione, in simili materie, che per le mani di tutti passarono, e non vennero mai ristampati, o tutt al piu ne fu fatta alcuna volta una seconda edizione." - Cicognara 174. This work is noted by Martin Kemp in his section on the Aristotelian legacy in color science: "Dolce's Dialogo...di colori (1565) may be taken as typical of the Venetian tradition, closely following works by Telesio (1528) and Morati (1535) and itself influencing subsequent works by Occolti (1568) and Rinaldi (1592). - The science of art, p. 272. This copy lacks one leaf of text (folio 23). The NUC locates two copies (Nrthwestern Univ., Evanston; and Cleveland Public Library). Bound with two other works: Pellegrino (catalogued separately in this collection) and Araldo (also catalogued separately in this collection).
3 works in one vol. 8vo, 17th century polished calf, gilt spine. Nice binding. 76+1 ff (ex 77; lacks folio 23).
181. OGE, EMILE. Couleurs d'Affiches. Paris, n.d. [ca. 1890-1900]
Fine copy of a handsome specimen of color poster inks. Twenty-five colors are shown, each on its own leaf; some are varnishable, others non-varnishable. The best of these color specimens come close to being "artist's books" - this one falls in that category. Rare.
Oblong 12mo, orig. printed wrappers. 25 leaves, each with the name of the maker, OgÇ, in large capitals in black and white; the background, which is the specimen ink color, is printed in lithography. Fine.
182. OPOIX, CHRISTOPHE. Phystalisch=chemische Beobachtungen uber die Farben. Aus dem Franzosichen des Herrn Opoix Opoir uberfest und mit Umnertungen verschen von Johann Daniel Ribini. Wien & Leipzig: Friedrich August Hartmann, 1785
Originally published in the Journal Physique (Paris) between 1776 and 1783 as "Observations sur les couleurs" according to Poggendorf II, col. 328. Brunet, IV, col. 194 refers to Opoix, Theorie des couleur but without date. Both the French and German editions are rare. Opoix (1745-1840) was a pharmacist and Inspector of Mineral Waters of Provence.
12mo, orig. paste paper boards, untrimmed copy. 118 pp.
183. OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. The science of color. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1953 First edition. A serious book prepared by the Committee on Colorimetry of the O.S.A., a group of 23 experts drawn from government, industry and the academy. Draws from the fields of physics, chemistry, histology, physiology, and psychology. Extensively documented and footnoted; also with a glossary index. Birren Catalogue 495.
8vo, orig. cloth. xiv+385 pp. with 25 color plates, 102 illus and 40 tables.
184. OSTWALD, WILHELM. Colour science. A handbook for advanced students in schools, colleges, and the various arts, crafts and industries depending on the use of colour. Authorized translation with an introduction and notes by J. Scott Taylor. London: Winsor & Newton, [1931]
First edition in English of the "Farbenkunde." This first volume is devoted to color theory and standards of color; there was a later second volume devoted to color measurement and color harmony. This is one of the two Ostwald titles included in Wurmfeld's Color documents (no. 49): "Ostwald applied his scientific methods to the problem of color standardization, a topic of great interest at the turn of the century. Ostwald's color system took the form of a squat double cone - not unlike some previous theoretical models. His achievement was in the systematic presentation of all hues in their variations. Ostwald's model was displayed in the Bauhaus in Dessau, and his material was included in its courses of study."
8vo, orig. dec. cloth. xviii+141 pp. with frontisp. port. of Ostwald, 8 portraits in the text of great color scientists, hors texte, 21 text figs and 4 plates of which 1 the color circle, 1 three part folding with 112 mounted color chips, and 1 a color circle with a movable dial attached.
185. OSTWALD, WILHELM. The Ostwald colour album. A complete collection of colour standards for use in colour specification and the study of colour harmony. Arranged by J. Scott Taylor. London: Winsor & Newton, [ca. 1931]
Rare. A series of 12 stiff card color plates in a slipcase; it contains 704 individually mounted squares of colored paper arranged in 14 series. Time consuming to produce, the eiditon must have been small.
8vo, orig. gilt printed slipcase in orig. box. 12 stiff cards each hinged together in pairs (i. e. 6 pairs).
186. OSTWALD, WILHELM. A simple explanation of the Ostwald colour system with diagrams and illustrations on the colour wheel by J. SCOTT TAYLOR. London: Winsor and Newton, 1935
First edition. "This handbook has been written to supply the demand which has arisen, both in Great Britain and America, for a small explanatory work on the Ostwald Colour System, capable of serving as an introduction to Dr. Ostwald's larger, and, for many readers, more abstruse treatise on Colour Science." Not in the Birren catalogue.
8vo, orig. cloth. 52 pp. with 6 plates and frontispiece (the colour wheel and the achromatic standards) made with hand-applied pieces of dyed papers.
187. OSTWALD, WILHELM. Die Kleine Farbmesstaffel. Ausgabe A. [Abridged color measure table, "System Ostwald." Showing 448 hand painted chromatic standards in 4 sections. Issue A: arranged in shaded purity series by Gerhard Streller and Grete Ostwald. [Gottingen: Muster-Schmidt, 1939]
Only edition, rare. A remarkable pedagogical device. It is meant to teach aesthetic combination or color harmony.
Oblong 4to, orig. boards with printed paper label on front cover. Grey scale and black window card is missing from the pocket inside front cover. 4 "plates" with a total of 448 hand painted color samples arranged in scales of purity.
188. THE PAINTER, gilder and varnisher's companion...16th edition, revised, with an appendix containing colors and coloring - theoretical and practical. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird & Co., 1871
Originally published 1850, this was a long popular manual (it was still in print as late as 1902). Title continues: "rules and regulations in everything relating to the arts of painting, gilding, varnishing, glass-staining, graining, marbling, sign-writing, gilding on glass, and coach painting and varnishing; tests for the detections of adulterations in oils, colors, etc...comprising descriptions of a great variety of additional pigments, their qualities and uses. To which are added dryers, and modes of operations of painting, etc. together with Chevreul's Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors."
8vo, orig. cloth. 356+24 pp. with 4 text illus. Inner hinges tender.
189. PARKHURST, DANIEL BURLEIGH. The painter in oil. A complete treatise on the principles and technique necessary to the painting of pictures in oil colors. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., [1898]
Originally published earlier in the same year, 1898. Includes much on materials, general and technical principles and practical application. Includes 24 mounted specimen tints of Winsor and Newton's artists oil colors. Parkhurst was a pupil of William Sartain, Bouguereau, and Tony Fleury and taught at Dickinson College.
8vo, orig. cloth. xiii+405 pp. with 65 text illus and 2 plates with 48 mounted samples of oil colors.
190. PARSONS, JOHN HERBERT. An introduction to the study of colour vision. Second edition. Cambridge: University Press, 1924
Originally published 1915. The author attempts to separate the best established facts of colour vision from the theories and then discusses the chief theories in light of these facts. Sir John Parsons was an important opthalmic surgeon in London.
8vo, orig. cloth. x+323 pp. with color frontisp and 94 text illus or charts.
191. PARSONS, THOMAS & SONS. A tint book of historical colours suitable for decorative work. Deluxe edition. London: Thomas Parsons & Sons Ltd., 1934
First edition. A nicely produced book of color chips in a variety of historical styles and/or periods: Egypt, oriental, Tyrian, Pompeian, Moorish, Medici, verdure tapestry colours, Gres de Flandres, etc. The firm of Parsons was founded in 1802. Birren Collection 510 lists a similar item from the same firm.
8vo, orig. patterned cloth. 73 pp. with 136 named color chips.
192. PATERSON, DAVID. The science of colour mixing. A manual intended for the use of dyers, calico printers, and colour chemists. London: Scott, Greenwood & Co., 1900
First edition. An uncommon book, and one of very few which combine the science of color theory with dyeing and textile printing. Lawrie 526. Faber Birren Collection 511. Not in the Edelstein Collection.
8vo, orig. cloth. xii+128+32 pp with 4 pattern plates with a total of 11 mounted specimens of actual dyed and printed fabrics and 5 chromolitho plates and 41 text illus.
193. PERROT, A. M. Manuel du coloriste...revu et augmentÇ par E. Blanchard, peintre d'histoire naturelle. Paris: Roret, 1834
Fine untrimmed copy of a rare work, of special value as it contains named colors; one of the folding plates contains 40 examples of named colors (hand applied in water colors). R. D. Harley, in her Artists pigments c.1600-1835, pp. 179-181 lists only ten books with named color samples between ca 1620 and 1887. Not in the Birren Collection. Not mentioned by Harley. NUC locates 3 copies only.
12mo, orig. printed wrappers, untrimmed.xlviii+vii+199+36 pp with 2 folding plates (1 hand-col).
194. PERSOZ, J[EAN] [FRANCOIS]. TraitÇ theoretique et pratique de l'impression des tissus. Paris: Victor Masson, 1846
First edition, a good complete set with all 429 mounted fabric samples and with the atlas of color plates. A notorious rarity, this is also a very important work. Its relationship to the art of Seurat has been pointed out by Professor Herbert: "Thanks to the Indian origin of dyes, methods and patterns, there gradually grew up the widespread idea that the Orient was the source of color knowledge, conceived of as mysterious and less susceptible of scientific analysis than light and dark, and form. Hence the most abstruse of occult theories, common studio lore, and the dye and textile industry all formed a mutually supporting relationship. One of the leading examples of their multiple uses is Georges Seurat, whose Neo-Impressionism had as sources, besides up-to-date scientific theory, the writings of Chevreul based on textiles, those of Jules Persoz (Traite...de l'impression des tissus, 1846) devoted to dyed cotton and what Seurat called 'oriental precepts.'" - Yale Library Gazette (July 1974), p. 27. The plates, especially, are astonishing and several are quite obviously proto-pointillist and clearly point the way to Seurat. Apparently Professor Homer did not know of the book and makes no mention of it in his excellent Seurat and the science of painting (Cambridge, 1970). Ron. Bib. Tinctoria, 834 - "a monumental 19th century French handbook on textile printing." Kemp, The science of art: "Persoz's brilliantly illustrated TraitÇ attracted Seurat's attention, to the extent that the painter transcribed a section of its text (p. 316). Lawrie 536.
Text: 4 vols, 8vo, orig. boards, cloth spines. I. lx+569+1 pp; II. iv+558 pp; III. iv+458 pp and IV. iv+560 pp with a total of 429 mounted samples of printed fabrics and 165 text illus. Atlas: Small folio, orig. printed wrappers, cloth spine. vi pp with 20 double-p. plates, the first three of which are lithos printed in colors; nos 4-20 are engraved. Light old waterstain through the upper quadrant of the first few plates; not objectionable.
195. PIERCE, W. O'D. The selection of colour workers. Being a research into the practical methods of measuring the ability to discriminate fine shades of colour. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1934
First edition. An unusual work in the field of industrial psychology. The work was begun by A. M. Hudson Davies and A. Stephenson; it was completed and described by W. O'D Pierce and edited with a preface and a chapter by Charles S. Myers. Birren Catalogue 192.
8vo, orig. cloth. xii+134+ii+28 pp of ads with 13 illus. Small old lib. no. on base of spine; old rubber stamp.
196. POPE, ARTHUR. An introduction to the language of drawing and painting. Vol I. The painter's terms. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1939
Originally published 1929. An attempt to present the theory of tone or color in its application to painting in so far as this complicated subject is understood at the present time. The color plates illustrate the scale of values, the scale of colors, the scale of intensities, and values. In 1974 the Fogg Art Museum mounted an exhibition "Color in Art - A tribute to Arthur Pope." Arntzen-Rainwater M43. Chamberlin 1496.
8vo, orig. cloth, paper label on spine. xiv+157 pp. with 63 text illus and 5 color plates printed on coated paper.
197. POULTON, EDWARD BAGNALL. The colours of animals. Their meaning and use, especially considered in the case of insects. New York: Appleton, 1890
First edition. A volume of Appleton's International Scientific Series. Birren Collection 536(N). Some interesting comments on color and the study of plants and animals are given by Prof. Herbert in the Yale Library Gazette, (July 1974), p. 25.
8vo, orig. cloth. xvi+360+iv pp. with a chromolithographic frontisp. and 66 figures in text. Fine copy.
198. PRANG, LOUIS, MARY DANA HICKS & JOHN. S. CLARK. Color instruction. Suggestions for a course of instruction in color for public schools. Boston: Prang Educational Co., 1893
First edition, good copy, cmplete with both color charts. Prang and Milton Bradley were the two leading figures in the domain of the teaching of color to children. On both of them see Professor Herbert's comments in the Yale Library Gazette (July 1974), pp. 22-23. On Prang see also the DAB and D. Korzenic, Drawn to Art, (Hanover, 1985). Birren Collection 538. Wurmfeld, Color Documents 39 reproducing the first color chart and with a note.
8vo, orig. cloth. 187 pp with 14 plates and 2 Prang color charts, the first containing 12, the second 24, mounted samples of Prang colored papers.
199. RECIPES for the colour, paint, varnish, oil, soap and drysaltery trades. Compiled by an analytical chemist. London: Scott, Greenwood & Co., 1926
First published 1902; this is the third revised and enlarged edition. A highly valuable compilation, arranged in 12 sections, including I. pigments or colors for paints, lithograhic and letterpress printing inks; II. mixed paints and preparations for paint making, painting, lime-washing, paper-hanaging, etc., III. varnishes for coach builders, cabinet makers, wood workers, metal workers, photographers, etc., VII. cements, pastes, glues and other adhestive preparations, etc. At the end of each section is a list of further books on the subject.
8vo, orig. cloth. viii+358+2 pp. A nice copy.
200. RENNER, PAUL. Ordnung und Harmonie der Farben. Eine Farbenlehre fur Kunstler und Handwerker. Ravensburg: Otto Maier Verlag, 1947
First edition. An uncommon German treatise, not in the Birren Catalogue.
4to, orig. printed boards, cloth spine. 79+1 pp with numerous text illus and 8 tipped in color plates.
201. REVUE GENERALE des Matieres Coloranates et des industries qui s'y rattachent. Produits chemiques, matieres premieres, blanchiment, teinture impression et appret des fibres textiles et du papier, etc. Volumes I and II (1897-1898). Paris, 1897-8
The first two volumes of this major periodical for the dyeing industry (the complete series ran to 1940 for which see the Union list of serials). The two volumes together contain 211 dyed samples of a wide and fascinating variety: plain and printed cottons, woven cotton plaids, silks, wools, felts, metallic and stamped fabrics, irridescent fabrics, threads and yarns, FEATHERS, indigo cottons, embossed and textured papers, etc. etc. Not in the Edelstein Collection.
2 vols, small folio, orig. half brown calf, marbled sides. 428 and 500 pp with 14 and 15 stiff card plates contianing 211 mounted samples.
202. RIDGWAY, ROBERT. Color standards and color nomenclature. With fifty three colored plates and eleven hundred and fifteen named colors. Washington: Published by the author, 1912
A remarkable tour de force of bookmaking, involving 1115 separate mounted colour samples. Some interesting remarks on this aspect of colour books are made by Robert Herbert in "A Color Bibliography II", pp. 128-9, Yale Library Gazette, (1978). Prof. Herbert call this "among the most famous of color standards". The letterpress and colour work are by A. Hoen & Co., of Baltimore. The author, curator of the Division of Birds at the Smithsonian, discarded most aniline and coal tar dyes, cochineal lakes and other unstable pigments for the sake of permanency. Faber Birren Collection 549.
8vo, recent green cloth, morocco lettering piece. (vi)+iv+43+1 pp. with 53 plates containing 1115 named colours. Orig. front wrap bound in. T.p. with old perforated lib. stamp, but a good copy.
203. RIMINGTON, A. WALLACE. Colour-music, the art of mobile colour. Prefatory notes by Sir Herbert von Herkomer and Dr. W. Brown. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1912
Color-music held a great attraction in the first quarter of this century, but it was hardly a new idea; the Jesuit priest Castel (q.v.) carried the musical analogy into practice in 1740. The present work would appear to be the first edition, but Professor Herbert states: "At the end of the century, electricity permitted a modernized form of Castel's color organ, the invention of A. W. Rimington. His 1912 publication, new to Yale, is an improvement over his first description of 1895, thanks to the reproduction of photographs of his own organ and its constituient parts." - Yale Library Gazette (July, 1974), p. 18. Birren catalogue 551.
8vo, orig. cloth. xx+185 pp. with 22 plates of which 7 are in color and the remainder halftones from photographs.
204. ROBERTS, MICHAEL & E. R. THOMAS. Newton and the origin of colours. A study of one of the earliest examples of scientific method. London: G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 1934
First edition. An intelligent work which was used as a school text in England, part of the series "Classics of the scientific method."
Small 8vo, orig. printed wrappers. viii+133 pp. with 8 plates on coated paper and scattered text illus.
205. ROCAMIR DE LA TORRE. Observations sur le coloris, le dessin, et les beaux arts des tetes que l'on remarque dans les tableaux des peintres celebres. Toulouse: Sens et Paul Savy, 1855
First edition, rare. A bizarre study of the color of the eyes of figures painted by famous artists.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers. 103 pp.
206. ROOD, OGDEN N. Modern chromatics with applications to art and industry. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1879
First edition of a book of much importance. Rood taught physics at Columbia; he was an amateur painter and admired Turner but, ironically, was not fond of the post-impressionists who made use of his book. Rood wished "to present in a simple and comprehensive manner the underlying facts upon which the artistic use of color necessarily depends," with the idea that "a certain amount of rudimentary information tends to save useless labor." He realized that there was much work to be done in the standardization of color and complained that his book was merely an "elaborate repetition of the work of Mayer, Lambert and Runge." However his Modern chromatics is a culminating work that led the way for later theorists. - Color documents, no. 40. It was translated into French in 1881 and acquired some of its fame thanks to its adoption by Georges Seurat and the new-impressionists. See the excellent discussion of this book in Homer, Seurat and the science of painting, pp. 36-43. See also D.S.B. which states this book was known as "the impressionist's bible." Birren Collection 556.
8vo, orig. cloth, spine a but dull else a fine copy. 330 pp. with color litho frontisp and 130 illus.
207. ROOD, OGDEN N. Modern chromatics. Student's text book of color with applications to art and industry. Including a facsimile of the first American edition of 1879. Preface, introduction and commentary notes by Faber Birren. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973
Out of print and scarce. Much more than a straight reprint, this is a highly valuable reference not only on Rood but on color theory and French painting of the late 19th century. It should be on the shelf beside the first edition. A high quality book, nicely produced.
Oblong cloth, orig. d.j. (edges torn). 257 pp with 8 color plates and numerous text illus. Birren's essay occupies 73 pages.
208. ROOD, ROLAND. Color and light in painting. Edited by George L. Stout. New York: Columbia University Press, 1941
First ediiton of a scarce and important book. Roland, an artist, was the son of Ogden Rood, the famous physicist and color theorist (see above). Roland died in 1927 and this book was put together from his notes by his widow and by George Stout who was a conservator at the Fogg Museum. Chapters include production of color by addition, broken color and luster, production of color by subtraction, local color and shadow color, color costants - induction and contrast, etc. As Stout states at the outset, "This book is good reading on a subject which might have been made deadly dull." Not in the Birren catalogue.
8vo, orig. cloth. xii+299 pp. with 34 text illus.
209. ROSENSTIEHL, M. A. Les premieres ÇlÇments de la science de la couleur. Collection des tableaux colorÇs. Mulhouse: Verve Bader & Cie., 1884
First edition. This work helped spread knowledge of Maxwell color disks, the adjustable colored disks which when spun at high speed form a single color (the apparatus is clearly shown in two plates made from photographs). "Rosenstiehl's book, published at the height of Cubism, was the acknowledged inspiration for the color system of Julie Beaudeneau which, in turn, was used by Jacques Villon." - R. Herbert, Yale Library Gazette (July 1974), p. 45. This fascinating book is illustrated with 4 chromolithographic plates of color circles and 5 plates with a total of 49 mounted color tone samples. This work was published under the auspices of the SociÇtÇ industrielle de Rouen. Birren Catalogue 559.
8vo, old calf spine, marbled boards. ii+53 pp. with 2 plates from photographs, and 9 color plates (4 chromolithos, 5 with mounted color chips). All color plates with orig. dust sheets; fine copy.
210. ROSENSTIEHL, A. TraitÇ de la couleur au point de vue physique, physiologique et esthetique comprenant l'expose de l'etat actuel de la question de l'harmonie des couleurs. Deuxieme edition, revue et mise a jour par Julie Beaudeneau. Paris: Maison Berville, 1934
Originally published 1913, this is a highly important book. "This book expands upon the author's important brochure, Les premiers elements de la science de la couleur (Mulhouse, 1884) which had helped spread knowledge of Maxwell color disks, the adjustable colored discs, which when spun at high speed form a single color. Rosenstiehl's book, published at the height of cubism, was the acknowledged inspiration for the color system of Julie Beaudeneau which, in turn, was used by Jacques Villon." - (this note by Daniel Robbins; quoted from R. Herbert, "A color bibliography," Yale Lib. Gazette, July 1974, p. 45. Birren Collection 560 (ed. of 1913).
NUC locates one copy only (DLC).
8vo, orig. printed stiff paper wrappers. xv+247 pp. with 53 text illus and 8 chromolitho plates. Fine copy.
211. ROSS, DENMAN WALDO. The painter's palette. A theory of tone relations. An instrument of expression. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1919
First edition. "Other twentieth century manuals include one by the influential Harvard lecturer in design, Denman Ross. His 1919 manual proposes a reform of the triadic harmonies he urged in his earlier writings in favor of progressions of luminosities, that it, sequences of warm and cool hues." - Yale Lib. Gazette, July 1974, p. 15. Birren Catalogue 561.
8vo, orig. cloth. 10+41 pp. with numerous text diagrams.
212. RUNGE, F[RIEDLIEB] F[ERDINAND]. Das Od Bildungstreib der Stoffe. Veranschaulicht selbstandig gewachsenen Bildern. Oranienburg, 1866
A very rare and beautiful work of pigment chemistry and chromatography. Not all the samples are present; valued accordingly (we recently saw a complete copy offered for sale at $13,500). The DSB states that Runge was "a pioneer in the use of paper chromatography...his Farbenchemie of 1850 contained a collection of chromatograms showing concentric zones of different substances present in a solution that had radiated from the spot of application." That is exactly the case with the mounted specimens in the present work, and the letterpress text with each one explains the chemicals used. Though this was a work of pure science, the audience it was intended for clearly included those in the arts. Today it appeals as well to those who see in nineteenth century color experiments antecedents of modern abstract painting. Despite the worn and imperfect condition of this copy it is still stunning; the pages are slate colored dark gray paper upon which are mounted the colorful chromatograms and the letterpress captions. The title page is especially handsome, with the rectangle of letterpress surrounded by 22 small mounted chromatograms. This copy lacks 16 of the 60 mounted samples called for but as they were done in pairs, and one for each example of letterpress is still present, the work still gives the essential information and color samples a complete copy would give. It is impossible to describe in words; it must be seen.
Tall folio (18 x 11"). Printed label on front cover. 32 leaves. With 22 small mounted chromatograms on the title page and 44 larger mounted chromatograms and 31 mounted labels of letterpress. Edges chipped; some of the gutter edges chipped.
213. SANFORD, JOHN ITHIEL. Sanford's manual of color. New York: Hugh Kelly & Co., 1910
First edition. A rudimentary discussion of the primary and secondary colors. Very uncommon. Birren Catalogue 567.
8vo, orig. cloth, nice copy. 33 pp with color frontisp and 1 color plate.
214. SARGENT, FREDERICK LEROY. A working system of color for students of art and nature. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1927
First edition, a fine copy. The author was a teacher and botanist. Chapters: color in general; hues; shades; strengths; writing color; using pigments; choosing contrasts. Birren Catalogue 568.
4to, orig. cloth. vi+97 pp with 11 plates on heavy card stock, mostly in color.
215. SCHIPMAN, JEAN. Le melange des couleurs. Paris: Henri Laurens, 1936
Only edition. An uncommon manual for artists notable for the five color plates which contain a total of 60 color samples, the majority of which are named. The text discusses the different sorts of palettes as well as mixtures of various colors. Not in the Birren Collection. Not in the NUC which one other title on painting by Schipman of 1935 in one copy only.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers in glassine. 48 pp. with 5 color plates.
216. SCORESBY, Rev. W. On the colours of the dew-drop, with a simple method of observing them. [Edidnburgh, 1841]
A separately paginated offprint in original wrappers from the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. An interesting example of the way aesthetics and science were combined in the nineteenth century.
8vo, orig. blue wrappers. 6 pp with 1 engr. plate.
217. SEGUY, E. Code universal des couleurs. 720 couleurs. Paris: Paul Lechevalier, 1936
First edition. A system of precise designation of colors for the exact and natural sciences. The format is interesting; it consists of 48 loose plates on stiff stick each with 15 colors printed in "quadrichromie" (4 color process) together with 7 masks of various colors for isolating individual color samples against different colored backgrounds. The author was an official of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle and had previously been a miniature painter. This work is comparable to those of Dauthenay (q.v.) and Wilson (q.v.); all of them were attempts to establish standardization of color nomenclature for naturalists. It would also appear to have been influenced by the Code des Couleurs of Klincksieck & Valette of 1908; it has exactly the same number of colors and more or less the same format. The present work is scarce; it is not in the Birren Collection nor any of the other references at hand.
8vo, orig. printed folding card case. 68 page explanatory pamphlet with one color plate; 55 plates of which 1-48 are colors, the remainder masks. Fine copy.
218. SIPLEY, LOUIS WALTON. A half century of color. New York: Macmillan, 1951
First edition. Sipley was a original member of the board of American Museum of Photography, which opened in 1940. This copy still has the original color transparency insert present at page 158; it is usually missing.
4to, orig. cloth. xv+216 pp. profusely illustrated in halftone with many colour plates included, the frontispiece being a facsimile of Kurtz's three colour photoengraving of 1893.
219. SLATER, J. W. The manual of colours and dye wares: their properties, applications, valuation, impurities, and sophistications. For the use of dyers, printers, drysalters, &c. Second edition. London: Crosby Lockwood, 1882 Originally published 1870, both editions are uncommon. This is a valuable book, arranged in alphabetical format from "acetate of iron" to "zinc, sulphate of." In addition to the accessible format, there is a very comprehensive index. Lawrie 674. Birren Collection 284. Edelstein 3530.
8vo, orig. cloth. iv+243+40+16 pp.
220. SMITH, THOMAS. The art of drawing in its various branches...with coloured designs and numerous wood engravings. London: Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, 1827
First published 1825, An uncommon book, not in the Abbey Collection and not in the UCBA. Of special interest is the section on colour, with 58 water colour samples of named colours withdescriptive notes to each. The author also categorises subjects, and illustrates each with a fine hand coloured example: marine, flowers, fruit, still life, animals, etc. Another title by Smith is in the Abbey catalogue, Life, no. 183. The present work is included in Bicknell & Munro, Gilpin to Ruskin, no. 61. NUC locates 3 copies only. Good copy.
8vo, recent marbled sides, brown cloth spine. xvi+121 pp. with 17 aquatint plates, incl. 3 in 2 states (2 tinted and 13 hand coloured), 1 wood-engr. plate, 58 colour samples in conjunction with the letter press and 25 wood engr. text illus. Untrimmed copy; each plate with original dust sheet. The quality of the coloring is very high.
221. SMYTH, W. H. Sidereal chromatics; being a re-print, with additions, from the "Bedford Cycle of Celestial Objects," and its "Hartwell Continuation," on the colours of multiple stars. London: Printed for Private Circulation by John Bowyer Nichols & Sons, 1864
A rare and interesting work on the colors of stars with a color plate of standards: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, each with four hues in descending intensity. The author was an admiral. Birren catalogue 287.
Large 8vo, orig. cloth. 96 pp. with 1 chromo-litho plates. Ex-lib., old bookplate and small blindstamp on title but a nice copy.
222. STANDAGE, H. C. The artist's manual of pigments. Philadelphia: Janentzky & Weber, 1886
Originally published London, 1885; this is the first American edition. "Showing their composition, conditions of permanency, non-permanency, and adulterations; effects in combination with each other and with vehicles; and the most reliable tests of purity". Not in the Birren collection.
Small 8vo, orig. cloth, gilt dec. cover. xiv+112+ii pp.
223. STRONG, R. M. The development of color in the definitive feather. Offprint from Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Vol XL, no. 3. Cambridge, Mass., 1902
The study of plants and animals has given a large body of writings to the literature of color going back to the 18th century. The present work has sections on the production of color in the feather, the pigmentation of the feather, the chemical nature of feather pigments, etc. Includes a bibliography and a series of excellent plates in photogravure.
8vo, old cloth. (ii)+147-186 pp. and 9 photogravure plates each with leaf of letterpress. Ex-lib., bookplate but not stamped or marked.
224. SYME, PATRICK. Werner's nomenclature of colours, with additions, arranged so as to render it highly useful to the arts and sciences, particularly zoology, botany, chemistry, mineralogy, and morbid anatomy. Second edition. Edinburgh: William Blackwood a.o., 1821
Originally published 1814. An important book in the literature of nomenclature and colour standards, given a good note by Robert Herbert: Syme's work was "a variation of the earlier system of A. G. Werner (1750-1817), the mineralogist, extending it from 79 hues (based on actual minerals) to 108. The Werner-Syme nomenclature, less abstract than Harris' was more suitable to artists, amateurs, horticulturalists, and natural scientists, who could record colour notes in nature by reference to a numbered system favoring analogies with natural forms and substances ("64. Lemon Yellow. Large wasp or hornet. Shrubby Goldilock. Yellow orpiment"). - "A color bibliography," Yale Library Gazette, July 1974. Birren Coll. of books on colour, no. 648(c) listed erroneously under Werner. Mr. Birren elsewhere calls this "an early pioneer work in its field." - Color order systems and standards, 3d ed., 1988, p. 1.
8vo, recent boards, printed paper label on front cover. (iv)+47 pp. with 110 hand-painted colour samples mounted on 12 plates. Plates are somewhat foxed but colors are not affected.
225. TAYLOR, E. J. Colour-sense training and colour using. London & Glascow: Blackie & Son, n.d. [ca. 1920]
A nicely illustrated manual for the teaching of colour. For further study the author recommends Professor Church, James Ward, O. N. Rood, L. F. Day, Grant Allen. Birren Collection 609 citing an American edition of 1927.
12mo, orig. cloth. (iv)+88 pp. with 17 attractive color printed plates.
226. TAYLOR, J. SCOTT. Descriptive handbook of modern water-color pigments ...twenty third thousand. London: Winsor & Newton nd [ca 1890]
Originally published 1887. In this edition the number of colour samples has been expanded to 134. This is an important book as it contains named colour samples; R. D. Harley lists only ten such books before 1887 and several of these are unique manuscripts (Artists' Pigments, pp. 179-181). J. S. Taylor was research chemist for Winsor & Newton in the late 19th century. The present work is the final entry on Harley's list; she notes that it contains "several varieties of madder lake, vermillion, ultra marine and sepia, cadmiums, chromes and mars colors, oxide of chromium, viridian and emerald green and quercitron lake under various names such as yellow lake and gallstone." The introduction discusses the recent water-color controversy. Laid into this copy are 2 pamphlets: "A few notes on colour mixing" and a brochure of a Winsor & Newton exhibit in New York, 1960.
8vo, orig. printed paper wraps. (viii)+71+1 pp. with 5 ff. of mounted samples of colour washes containing 134 samples.
227. TELESIO, BERNARDINO. Libellus de coloribus. [Basel, 1537]
Originally published Venice 1528 (see M. Kemp, The science of art, p. 272 and footnote 56). According to Kemp, this work may be taken as typical of the Venetian tradition in the Aristotelian world of color studies. Adams, no. 35 (under Lazare de Baif). The pagination in our copy begins with 305 and ends with 323; this is the entire section "De Coloribus" from Telesio's larger work. It might seem at first glance that this is a fragment but in fact this is the complete work and is corroborated by the copy in the NUC (at NY Public Library) which also has the same pagination. There was at least one later 16th century edition; the NUC locates (also in one copy only) a copy dated 1549. The present copy is bound as a preliminary work with Aristoteles De Coloribus (which is catalogued separately in this collection).
8vo, later (late 18th-early 19th century) half vellum, decorated paper sides. Pp. 305-323.
228. THAYER, ABBOTT. The law which underlies protective coloration. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1898
First printing of this important essay. Extensively annotated offprint (possibly by the author?) in the original printed wrappers. Abbott Thayer was the father of Gerald (see next item). "This article is intended to set forth a beautiful law of nature which, so far as I can discover, has never been pointed out in print. It is the law of gradation in the coloring of animals, and is responsible for most of the phenomena of protective coloration except those properly called mimicry." - first paragraph.
8vo, orig. printed wraps. (ii)+pp.477-482 with 1 text illus and 5 plates with 9 halftones from photographs.
229. THAYER, GERALD H. Concealing-coloration in the animal kingdom. An exposition of the laws of disguise through color and pattern: being a summary of Abbott H. Thayer's discoveries. Introductory essay by A. H. Thayer. New York: Macmillan, 1909
First edition of this handsome book graced with beautiful color lithographs. "Thayer is one of the few ever to win an argument with Theodore Roosevelt, who in l896, had disputed the first announcement of his theories, and his central discovery of counter-shading (light underportions, dark upper-bodies for fish, animals and birds) is still valid today." - R. L. Herbert, Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, p. 26. The book is also important for the student of visual studies and photography. Casey Wood, p. 594: "This work and theory have been both severely criticised and warmly defended." This copy belonged to Dr. Edgar Burke, a famous artist and writer on trout.
4to, orig. cloth, a.e.g. 260 pp. with 16 superb color lithographs, and 140 illus, mostly from photographs.
230. TILTON, STEPHEN W. The first book in color being a complete practicable theory and method of color construction as color appears materially. Boston: the author, 1889
First edition. "Beginner's manual, with very clear distinctions made between color-light and color-pigment." - Herbert, Yale Lib. Gazette (July 1974), p. 47. The six pages at the end are the author's advertising supplement, giving his own selection of materials and publications for school use. Birren Catalogue 617.
8vo, orig. cloth. 137+6 pp. with 39 illus.
231. TOCH, MAXIMILIAN. Materials for permanent painting. A manual for manufacturers, art dealers, artists and collectors. New York: Van Nostrand, 1911
First edition. Toch was a chemist and author of several important books on paints and picture conservation. Much of the present work deals with pigments and permanent colors. This work is not mentioned in the Ruhemann/Plesters bibliography but four other works by Toch are.
8vo, orig. cloth. 208 pp. with colour frontisp.
232. TRZESCHTIK, L. Katechismus der Farbenharmonik ober die Element der Chromatik nach dem neuesten Stande der Optik in popular fallung. Wien: Spielhangen & Schurich, [1871]
A rare German work on chromatics and color harmony. It is illustrated with two folding plates with three color-printed color circles and five tables. The author was an architect.
8vo, orig. printed wrappers, disbound (but sewing good and tight). viii+44 pp with 2 fdg. color printed plates.
233. TYLOR, ALFRED. Colouration in animals and plants. Edited by Sydney B. J. Skertchly. London: Alabaster, Passmore & Sons, 1886
First edition, published from the author's manuscript by the editor (Tylor died before the book saw publication). The author's fundamental idea is that decoration is based on structure and that colour is applied directly to the organs. The 12 chromolithographic plates are interesting and carefully printed. Not in the Birren Collection. An uncommon book.
8vo, recent cloth. xiv+105 pp with 12 chromolithographic plates and 17 woodcuts. Good clean copy.
234. VALETTE, [MAURICE A.]. Harmonies des couleurs en rapport avec les harmonies des sons. 1er Memoire. Du vrai, du beau, et du l'utile dans ces harmonies comparees ou application de la science musicale aux beaux-arts et a l'industrie. Exposition de l'idee-mere, au sein du Congres scientifique de Bordeaux. Paris & Bordeaux: Maison LaFargue, 1861
First edition, very rare. A work in which the author attempts to establish by scientific methods the "lois des assortisments des couleurs d'apres les lois des accords des sons." Maurice Valette (1828-1891) leaned especially on the ideas of Chevreul as expressed in his great De la loi du Contraste simultane des couleurs which appeared in 1839. He makes further references to Kircher, Newton, etc. Includes a handsome folding plate printed in blue ink, a large circle based on mathematical formulas which in turn relate to the colors. It is well known that over the course of the nineteenth century musical analogies had been used with increasing frequency to explain the intangible qualities of painting, until at the end of the century there was a widespread belief in the interrelationships of color and music. Front wrapper inscribed: "Homage de l'auteur et de l'editeur, M.A.V." Not in the NUC.
4to, orig. printed wrappers. xii+30 pp. with 1 fdg plate printed in blue ink.
235. VANDERPOEL, EMILY NOYES. Color problems. A practical manual for the lay student of color. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1903
First published 1902. Vanderpoel was a New York artist, author and collector of oriental art objects. Color Problems was intended as a manual for all those (decorators, designers, lithographers etc) requiring a fuller understanding of color theory. She refers to Chevreul, Bezold, Rood, Church, and others as having written more technical treatises or artists' manuals. The text focusses on color contrasts and harmonies. The 117 plates printed in colors are especially notable. Includes an appendix of definitions and terms and an interesting bibliography of fifty titles in several languages. This copy is complete with the mask inside the pocket inside the rear cover; it is usually missing. Wurmfeld, Color documents, no. 41 illustrating 4 of the plates in color. Birren Catalogue 629.
8vo, orig. cloth, t.e.g. xv+137 pp. with 117 plates printed in colors, each bound on a stub. Bit of wear to the head of spine but a good copy.
236. VON BEZOLD, WILHELM. The theory of color in its relation to art and art-industry. Translated from the German by S. R. Koehler. Boston: Prang, 1876
First American edition; oiginally published in German in 1874 - (there was a further edition in Russian in 1877). "Bezold represents the generation beyond Maxwell and Helmholtz, when the distinction between color-light and color-pigment was at last clearly understood in the scientific world...Bezold is typical of the best scientist vulgarizers who incorporated the pragmatic findings of Chevreul with the most recent science, in a conscious effort to reach out toward art and industry...His work, typical of his generation, incorporates sections on the decorative and ornamental arts and on aesthetic principles in painting, frankly non-scientific concerns which reflect the scientist's expanded perception of their role in society." - Herbert, Yale Library Gazette, (July 1974), p. 7. Birren Collection 37. Wurmfeld, Color documents, no. 32.
8vo, orig. cloth. xxxiii+274 pp. with 65 text illus and 13 color plates, numbered 11 (6 chromo-lithographs by Prang and 6 colored papers especially printed with translucent tissue overlays). A visually highly appealing book. Binding a bit dull, but a nice copy of a scarce book.
237. WALL, E. J. The history of three color photography. Boston: American Photographic Pub. Co., 1925 First edition. A standard and important work, scarce. Newhall, N2206: " ... a classic; ... a scientific and technical survey of the development of processes with a bibliography of over 12,000 articles and patents". (Karpel, Arts in Amer.)
8vo, orig. cloth. (x)+747 pp. with 203 text illus. Former owner's name crossed out with black magic marker; else a very good copy.
238. WARD, JAMES. Colour harmony and contrast for the use of art students, designers and decorators. London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1903
First edition. An attractive book, especially for the plates which are very much in the manner of Art Nouveau, and also for the group of colour plates of decorative interior wall paint schemes. Included in Wurmfeld's Color documents as no. 42 with the comment: "In agreement with William Morris, [Ward] defines the artistic practice of color harmony and contrast and includes the previous work of Chevreul, Rood, Church, David Brewster, Thomas Young, J. Clerk Maxwell and Sir Isaac Newton." Birren Collection 645.
8vo, orig. cloth. x+140 pp. with 17 color plates. Two old bookplates. Faded old white ink library no. on spine.
239. WARHURST, B. W. A colour dictionary giving about two hundred names of colours used in printing &c. Specially prepared for stamp collectors. Sixty colours illustrated. London: Stanley Gibbons, n.d. [ca. 1897]
A rare work, not listed in any of the several bibliographies of color books. It is yet another work in that vast body of literature which attempts to set standards and methods by which colors might be classified (for an interesting essay on this subject see R. Herbert, "A color bibliography," Yale Library Gazette, July l974, pp.pp. 8-11). The present work contains 51 named colors (and is is complete despite the 'sixty' called for in the title page. NUC locates no copies of this edition.
8vo, orig. printed boards. ii+48+viii pp with 51 colors on 14 plates. This edition has a color-printed frontispiece, "A Colour Dictionary."
240. WATIN, [JEAN-FELIX]. L'art du peintre, doreur, vernisseur, huitieme Çdition, entirement rÇfondue et augmentÇe de l'art du fabricant de couleurs...par M. Ch. Bourgeois. Paris: Belin-Leprieur, 1819
Originally published Paris, 1753. A long popular work, "ouvrage utile Proprietaires ou locataires qui veulent decorer eux-memes leur sejour, ainsi qu'a ceux qui se destinent a la profession de Peintre, Doreur et Vernisseur." The material on conservation is important and is given a long note in Rhuemann/Plesters, p. 378. It is also important for the material on artists pigments and is referred to repeatedly in Harley, Artist's Pigments. There were new editions in French up to 1823 and German translations of 1784 and 1834. M. Bourgeois was a painter and decorator at the Fabrique des Couleurs de J. Colcomb.
8vo, recent half calf, marbled boards, nicely bound. xii+428 pp.
241. WEBER, F. CO. Weber Artist water color in pans, tubes and jars. [Large color card]. Philadelphia, n.d. [ca. 1920]
A handsome and colorful large (16 x 11") folding broadside with 75 mounted color chips, each named. A fine display piece.
Folio (16 x 11 inches), folded into three sections. In very good condition.
242. WEBER, F. W. Artists' pigments. Their chemical and physical properties. New York: Van Nostrand, 1923 First edition. Deals with the durability of the various painting materials employed in the fine arts. Contents include: pigments, nomenclature of colors, technique employed in testing, artist's pigments, color theory, elementary color chemistry, tables of weight and measurement. Mayer, Artist's handbook, p. 704.
8vo, orig. cloth. vii+228 pp. Inner hinges tender.
243. WEINBERG, LOUIS. Color in everyday life. A manual for lay students, artisans and artists. New York: Moffat Yard & Co., 1918
First edition. "The principles of color combination and color arrangement, and their applications in dress, home, business, the theatre and community play." An unusual book with 20 paper samples in the small envelope inside the rear cover. Professor Herbert notes: "A curious vulgarization with plates on color associated with form, on "masculine" and "feminine" color." (Yale Lib Gazette, July 1974, p. 48). Birren Collection 646. Rare with all of the paper samples present; this copy actually has 26
8vo, orig. cloth. xvi+343 pp. with 15 plates and 26 color samples in rear inside pocket.
244. WILKINSON, J. GARDNER. On colour and on the necessity for a general diffusion of taste among all classes. With remarks on laying out dressed or geometrical gardens. London: John Murray, 1858
First edition. An interesting book with unusual plates which have been noted by R. L. Herbert; of eight, five are colour lithographs signed I. G. W. and 3 are hand stencilled colour over lithographs, signed West and Co. These latter three are a very unusual process; the plates themselves depict geometrical gardens and flower beds. Friedman, Color printing in England, no. 175 with an interesting note. Birren Coll. 654.
8vo, orig. blue cloth, gilt, a nice copy. xvi+408+32 pp. with 8 color plates as described above. A good copy.
245. WILSON, ROBERT F. Horticultural colour chart. London: The British Colour Council, 1938-41 First edition, fine set. At the 1938 International Horticultural Conference in Berlin, the Wilson Horticultural Chart was "recommended as an international standard." The physical format of the volumes is interesting and has been noted by Professor Herbert: "There are valuable lessons in the devices used to put such [color] materials together in book form. Some bindings are made in rings, bolts, or springs, and the user's need to make different arrangements of the individual colors forming a standard encouraged some publishers (WILSON COLOUR CHART) to make special, removable clasp bindings, although loose leaf sheets in boxes have represented the most common method." - Yale Library Gazette, July 1974, 11. Wurmfeld, Color documents, 52 cites a variant of 1937. R. F. Wilson was director of the British Colour Council for more than 25 years.
2 vols, 8vo, each vol in orig. slipcase. I. 1-7 pp with 100 color plates; II. 1-7 pp with 100 color plates. In this set the plates are in loose leaf sheets. This set retains its original black card trap (these are usually lost). Printed by Henry Stone and Son, Banbury.
246. WINSOR & NEWTON. Specimen tints of Winsor & Newton's artists' oil and water colours. London, n.d. [ca. 1900]
Fine copy of a valuable sample book of artist's paints, 176 named oil colors and 125 named water colors. These colormen's books "...show that a very wide range of colours was supplied; not only had some traditional pigments been revived in the nineteenth century, but different varieties of one pigment were often sold under several names...The composition of Field's lemon yellow is established by reference to Bachoffner; the composition of some of Ackermann's colours circa 1840 is mentioned by Fielding, and some of Winsor and Newton's colour names can be interpreted in the light of information provided in the book by J. S. Taylor, the firm's research chemist in the late 19th century." - Harley, Artists pigments, p. 173. NUC locates 4 copies. These Winsor & Newton color sample books differed; the last copy we had (also dated ca. 1900) contained substantially less.
8vo, orig. cloth, title printed in gilt on cover. 12 pp of preliminary text (mostly ads) and 8 plates of named oil colors (with 176 samples) and 6 plates of "modern water colours" (with 125 colors). Each colour sample is individually mounted. A few plates loose in binding but a fine copy.
247. WOOD, T. W. Ecclesiastical and academical colours. London: Bemrose & Sons, n.d. [ca. 1865-70] Fine copy of a rare little book on a subject on which there is little literature. Academical colors, especially, are fascinating expecially when seen in a mass gathering; all of the various degrees from all the British universities are explained here. Color as symbolism.
12mo, orig. cloth. (iv)+72+(viii) pp.
248. WOODWARD, CHARLES. A familiar introduction to the study of polarized light; with a description of, and instructions for using, the table and hydro-oxygen polariscope and microscope. Third edition, carefully revised. London: John Van Voorst, 1861
Originally published 1848. Polarized light is that which is passed through a prism of tourmaline; the resulting rays are broken up into the colors of the spectrum. The scientific study of light and color made a great leap forward in the early 19th centry when Thomas Young propounded his wave theory of light in 1802-7. The present book is based on Young's theory. Four of the illustrations are neatly colored by hand and were clearly done by the publisher.
8vo, orig. cloth. 54 pp. with 27 text illus (of which 4 hand-colored).
249. WRIGHT, W. D. The measurement of colour. London: Adam Higler Ltd., 1944
First edition. "The main purpose of this book has been to describe the principles, methods and applications of the trichromatic system of colour measurement...There are not many books in existence which deal with the subject." - preface. The author was a D.Sc. who taught at the Imperial College of Science and Technology. Birren Catalogue 665.
8vo, orig. cloth. viii+223 pp. with 65 illus (of which 6 in color).
250. BUSTANOBY, J. H. Principles of color and color-mixing. First edition, fourth impression. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1947
The author's own color system in a "how-to" text. Prefessor Herbert makes a general comment about twientieth century standards which applies well to the present example: "Twentieth century standards in the Birren Collection are yet more varied, and in their more geometric and mass produced aspect have much of the feeling of modern technological society, while retaining a crisp beauty that is in harmony with this century's abstract art." The color plates in the Bustanoby have very much that "modern technological feeling." Birren Catalogue 121.
8vo, orig. cloth. (iv)+131 pp. with 11 color plates and scattered text illus.