This recently discovered book is all abuzz on design blogs across the interweb… and for good reason. This is pretty amazing! The book called Traité des couleurs servant à la peinture à l’eau (which according to Google Translate, translates to “Treaty of colors used to paint water”) is right around 270 years old and is an extensive 700+ pages of colors and the breakdown of how each were made. Today’s world uses the Pantone Matching System (PMS) which, for the lack of a better way to put it, is pretty much the Bible for any graphic, interior, and even web designer. As Designers we need to know the breakdown of each color so that we can replicate it perfectly (or as near as possible depending on the medium) each time something is printed and this guy was figuring it out over 200 years before even Pantone was.
“In over 700 pages of handwritten Dutch, the author, who identifies himself as A. Boogert, describes how to make watercolour paints. He explains how to mix the colours and how to change their tone by adding “one, two or three portions of water”. – Erik Wakkel
Attention to the book came from a blog by a guy named Erik Wakkel where he described his impressive find in a French database.
Apparently you can see high-res versions of the book in its entirety HERE though, I haven’t any luck loading it… probably overloaded with page requests from designers geeking out about it.
I first saw this on http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/05/color-book/ and where all images in this post were taken from.