Chromatography: Or, A Treatise On Colours And Pigments And Of Their Powers In Painting, &c

London: Charles Tilt, 1835. First edition. Hardcover. Orig. navy cloth backstrip lettered in gilt. Fine. 276 pages. Folio, 32 x 24.5 cm. illustrated with hand-coloured engraved frontispiece and 1 engraved plate. xix, [1, blank], 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 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. Ex-libray, ink stamp and bar code sticker on ffep, and embossed library stamp on the corners of the plates, the first two and last two text leaves. Offsetting to title page from color frontispiece. Without hyperbole contents clean and almost as new. Names of the Subscribers, four pages include Rudoloph Ackermann, Sir Thomas Lawrence. Thomas Stothard et al.