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Calab Rare Books

William BENSON

William BENSON

Regular price $3,500.00 USD
Regular price Sale price $3,500.00 USD
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Principles of The Science of Colour, Concisely Stated to Aid and Promote Useful Application in the Decorative Arts.  vi, [2], 48 pp.   Illustrated with six in-text illustrations of which 2 are coloured by hand, 11 full page plates of which 5 are coloured by hand.  4to., 275 x 210 mm, bound in publisher’s purple pebbled cloth, professionally rebacked with matching spine.  London: Chapman & Hall, 1868.

 

First Edition.  A wonderful addition to the canon of colour theory, with hand-coloured examples that evoke both modernist and contemporary artistic sensibilities. 

 

‘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. 

 

Ownership inscription on the front paste-down.  Some light foxing to the dedication, top third of the rear end paper neatly excised, all together a near fine copy with the colour samples still vibrant. 

 

Birren Catalogue, No. 34.

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