Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, USA
Natural System of Colours
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- Quarto, half crushed morocco with paper-covered boards and morocco title label lettered in gilt. Title, dedication, address (two pages), text complete in 11 pages, and complete with four hand-coloured plates: Prismatic, Compound, Examples (a), Examples (b).
- Natural System of Colours: Exhibiting in a regular, simple, and beautiful arrangement, the Varieties of Teints arising from the three primitive colours, Red, Blue, and Yellow; the manner in which each is formed, its composition, their dependence on each other, and Harmonious Connections. A unique and invaluable publication to artists, in every branch of painting; and colouring of different substances.
By the late Moses Harris, author of several works in Natural History, including “The Aurelian,” “Exposition of English Insects,” &c. &c.
London: Printed by L Harrison and J.C. Leigh, 373 Strand, 1811
The extremely rare 2nd edition of Harris’s pioneering book on colour theory, dedicated to Benjamin West P.R.A
Collections
- Benjamin West PRA (1738-1820), the dedicatee;
- Raphael Lamar West (1769-1850), son of the above;
- Maria Margary, (m.1829), daughter of the above;
- Alfred Russell Margary (1843-92), son of the above
- Aubyn Jack Margary (1888-1966), son of the above;
- Jack Aubyn Margary (1923-2003), Leek, Staffordshire, son of the above;
- And by descent, to 2020
- Anonymous sale, Hansons Auctioneers, Staffordshire, 10th December 2020, lot 665;
- Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker Ltd in association with Thomas Heneage & Co.
Literature
- Alexandra Loske, Colour: a visual history, London, 2019, pp. 10, 27-29, 231