Notebook containing dyed yarn samples and corresponding handwritten dye recipes.

The first of two highly legible British dyer's account journals. The journal lists recipes and the costs for materials used in the process of dyeing many kinds of cloth, "gum china blue," "sumac," "peachwood," etc.…

The first of two highly legible British dyer's account journals. The journal lists recipes and the costs for materials used in the process of dyeing many kinds of cloth, "gum china blue," "sumac," "peachwood," etc.…

This warped and worn nineteenth-century Italian manuscript appears to be a working manual and color inventory of a wool dyer in mid-nineteenth-century Italy. The handwritten entries are dated between 1856 and 1866,…

Cardboard box which at one time contained two dozen, wooden dye containers sealed with paper labels. Each contained an indigo fabric dye puck.

Indigo is among the oldest dyes to be used for textile dyeing and printing.…

Frederick Crace Calvert (1819–1873) was a professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, Manchester. From 1835 to 1846 he lived in France, studying chemistry under the chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889), who…

Michel Eugène Chevreul’s Des couleurs presents the French chemist’s color classification system distinguishing 14,400 hues and tones. The book’s plates, illustrating various tonal scales and color wheels, were produced…

Inscribed: "Couleurs d’un spectre solaire produit par un prisme de sulfure de carbone comparées aux types du premier cercle chromatique de Mr. E. Chevreul."

The plate indicates colors from Chevreul’s "first chromatic…

Inscribed: "Manière dont Mr. Chevreul conçoit qu'une couleur qui est indéfinie en allant du blanc au noir est distinguée en parties définies qu'il appelle tons."

Chevreul presents the gamut of a pure color—blue—from…

Inscribed: "Zône circulaire dont les couleurs sont continues. On la suppose formée d’une reunion de zônes excessivement étroites et contigues parmi lesquelles il en est trois qui sont a des distances égales, RR, JJ, et…

Inscribed: "C’est la Planche 3 divisée en 72 parties égales avec cette condition que les zônes représentant le rouge, le jaune et le bleu, partagent en deux moities les trois parties où elles se trouvent."

This plate…

Inscribed: "5ème cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs rabattues, à 4/10 de noir."

Chevreul’s fifth chromatic circle shows the 72 pure hues from Plate V subdued with 4/10 black.

Inscribed: "1er cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs franches."

Chevreul’s first chromatic circle shows 72 colors in their purest hues.

Inscribed: "2ème cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs rabattues, à 1/10 de noir."

Chevreul’s second chromatic circle shows the 72 pure hues from Plate V subdued with 1/10 black.

Inscribed: "3ème cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs rabattues, à 2/10 de noir."

Chevreul’s third chromatic circle shows the 72 pure hues from Plate V subdued with 2/10 black.

Inscribed: "4ème cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs rabattues, à 3/10 de noir."

Chevreul’s fourth chromatic circle shows the 72 pure hues from Plate V subdued with 3/10 black.

Inscribed: "6ème cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs rabattues, à 5/10 de noir."

Chevreul’s sixth chromatic circle shows the 72 pure hues from Plate V subdued with 5/10 black.

Inscribed: "7ème cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs rabattues, à 6/10 de noir."

Chevreul’s seventh chromatic circle shows the 72 pure hues from Plate V subdued with 6/10 black.

Inscribed: "8ème cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs rabattues, à 7/10 de noir."

Chevreul’s eighth chromatic circle shows the 72 pure hues from Plate V subdued with 7/10 black.

Inscribed: "9ème cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs rabattues, à 8/10 de noir."

Chevreul’s ninth chromatic circle shows the 72 pure hues from Plate V subdued with 8/10 black.

Inscribed: "10ème cercle chromatique de Mr. Chevreul renfermant les couleurs rabattues, à 9/10 de noir."

Chevreul’s tenth chromatic circle shows the 72 pure hues from Plate V subdued with 9/10 black.

The gamut of orange-yellow tones from light to dark along a 20-tone scale, where positions 0 and 21 correspond to white and black respectively.

The gamut of grey tones from light to dark along a 20-tone scale, where positions 0 and 21 correspond to white and black respectively.

The gamut of red tones from light to dark along a 20-tone scale, where positions 0 and 21 correspond to white and black respectively.

The gamut of red-orange tones from light to dark along a 20-tone scale, where positions 0 and 21 correspond to white and black respectively.