[Rarebooks] FS: Important 1838 Color Theory -Color Lithography

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

Howard, Frank.  "COLOUR, AS A MEANS OF ART, being an adaptation of the
experience of professors to the practice of amateurs"

London Joseph Thomas: 1838.

The first edition of this interesting book by the author of several art
manuals, including a companion volume on sketching. In this volume Howard
surveys the coloring used by various schools and masters of art, including
Titian, Rubens and Turner, and instructs the amateur on how to achieve
like effects and gain a knowledge of coloring.

The book is perhaps most notable today as a very early example of color
lithographic printing, with 18 color plates produced by Charles Joseph
Hullmandell. A Paris-trained painter, Hullmandell was introduced to
lithography by the pioneering lithographer Alois Senefelder during a trip
to Munich in 1817. Soon he had developed his own lithographic press and
was experimenting with new techniques, including ways of printing in
colors.

Howard notes in his preface-

    "For the method in which the plates of the
     present work have been executed, I am
     indebted to a recent improvement in Lithography,
     made by Mr. Hullmandell. It is capable of
     producing more nearly the effects of painting
     than any other style of engraving but from these
     plates, professing only to represent masses of
     Colour and general tone, and being the first
     that have been attempted in this particular
     application, they are not calculated to display
     Mr. Hullmandell's improvement to advantage".

Despite Howard's protestations, the plates, which were achieved by the
printing of three or four overlays of color, have an undeniable charm and
are quite effective at getting across the points Howard is making in the
text.

Not everyone found Hullmandel as pleasant to work with as Howard
apparently did- in a letter to J.D. Hooker on March 11, 1844, Charles
Darwin noted that-

     "I believe Hullmandell is a good litho.
      printer, but I found him rather troublesome."

I suppose the price of art must always be paid, and geniuses are often
cranky.

Hardcover. 5"x8", ii, 106 pages, plus 18 lithographed, colored plates.
Publisher's brown cloth with gilt title; rebacked and with a new cloth
spine; covers with some soil and wear, contents with minor soil and some
scattered light spotting, but overall a nice copy.  [9457]  $400.00

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