Traite De Mignature pour apprendre aisement a peindre sans maitre.

1708. BOUTET, Claude. Traite De Mignature pour apprendre aisement a peindre sans maitre. Avec le secret de faire les plus belles couleurs, l'or bruni & l'or en coquille. Frontispiece, [14], 269, [19] pp. Illustrated with 2 leaves of plates. 8vo, 158 x 90 mm, bound in contemporary boards. The Hague: Louis and Henry van Dole, 1708. Originally published in Paris 1674, this is one of many later editions, but by far the most important since it contains the first appearance of a colour wheel, as usual uncoloured in this copy. The text stresses pigment and colour recipes (most of the book is devoted to them) but there are also sections on drawing, use of the compass, preparation of vellum, etc. Professor 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." This edition is rare with OCLC listing only 5 copies in America. Hinges worn, nevertheless a fine copy. Massing 16, listing 26 editions or printings and she states that the "above list is undoubtedly incomplete." Birren Catalogue 92. Kuehni and Schwartz pp. 56-57.