This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/21/2024
[COLOR-PLATE BOOKS]. FIELD, George (1777-1854). Chromatography: or, A Treatise on Colours and Pigments, and of Their Powers in Painting, &c. London: Charles Tilt, 1835. Folio. illustrated with hand-coloured engraved frontispiece and 1 engraved plate. [iii]-xix, [1, blank], 276 pp. Approximately 13 x 9 ½ “. Disbound (first several leaves loose and worn, torn, last few leaves dampstained with a hole in the center with loss to text, several gutters split, shaken, some wear, occasional soiling, some occasional worm damage near inner gutter). Fair. RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORK ON COLOR PIGMENT CHEMISTRY WRITTEN IN ENGLAND IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY BY A LEADING CHEMIST IN THE FIELD. “In many ways, the most useful literary source concerning pigments rather than painting of the period is Field’s Chromatography, published in 1835. Chromatography was the culmination of Field’s many years of color experiments and manufacture. The first part of Chromatography is concerned with color 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.)