CHEVREUL, M. E. (1786-1889). The Laws of Contrast of Colour, London, 1859, 8vo, 17 plates, all but one printed in colours by Edmund Evans (some spotting), original coloured decorated cloth (neatly rebacked). New Edition.

CHEVREUL, Michel Eugne (1786-1889).  The Laws of Contrast of Colour: and their Application to the Arts of Paintings, Decoration of Buildings, Mosaic Work, Tapestry and Carpet Weaving, Calico Printing, Dress, Paper Staining, Printing, Illumination, Landscape, and Flower Gardening, &c. ... Translated from the French by John Spanton. New Edition, With Illustrations Printed in Colours. London: Routledge, Warnes, and Routledge, 1859. 8vo (163 x 105mm). 17 plates, all but one printed in colours by Edmund Evans, the uncoloured plate with an onlay (some light spotting and staining to plates). Original coloured decorated cloth gilt (neatly rebacked, some bumping to edges). Provenance: from the Collection of the late John Anthony Benjafield (1938-2023); bookseller's blindstamp to front free endpaper. One of the most important treatises on colour written during the 19th-century. "... the most influential of his many books. [It] was the outcome of [Chevreul's] discovery that the apparent intensity and vigour of colours depended less on the pigmentation of material used than on the hue of the neighbouring fabric. After many experiments on colour contrast Chevreul formulated for the first time the general principles and effects of simultaneous contrast, the modification in hue and tone that occurs when juxtaposed colours are seen simultaneously" (DSB). The author was one of 72 distinguished French scientists to have his name inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. Cf. Birren Yale Collection 147; Norman 468 (citing the first [French] edition of 1839).