DAMBOURNEY Louis Auguste Recueil de procédés et d’expériences sur les teintures solides que nos Végétaux indigênes communiquent aux Laines & aux Lainages. [suivi de :] Supplément au recueil sur les teintures solides.

Bibl. Tinctoria, 280, 283; Cole, 326-327; Neville, 324-325; Pritzel, 2040 (not mentioning the supplement).

First edition of this classic work on colour chemistry and textile dyeing techniques.

The copy is complete with the supplement published two years after the main work.

“Dambourney (1722/1795), chimiste et botaniste français, fit faire d’importants progrès à la teinture. Il implanta notamment la Garance dans sa région et recensa de nombreuses plantes qui pouvaient teindre solidement les laines” (Hoefer).

“A practical essay on dying using vegetable dyes. Ordered, printed by the governement. The author gives directions for preparing mordants based on the process developed by his late friend Guillaume-Louis de La Follie. The Dictionnaire lists alphabetically, under the first letter of the French name, all of the plants the author employed in his experiments. The table of colors lists under each one the appropriate plant source” (Cole).

“[Dambourney], also recognized the possibility of extracting Indigo from woad (Isatis tinctori L.)”. (Bibliotheca Tinctoria).

“Dambourney, chemist, botanist, and director of the botanical garden at Rouen, developed the use of vegetable dyes for wool. He extracted a blue dye comparable to indigo from woad, and from the berries of the black alder he extracted a beatiful green dye. His reseraches on all kinds of plants from Normandy resulted in his being able to produce more than nine hundred vegetable colors and shades, which were resistant to soap and vinegar” (Neville).

A good copy, light stain on the first two leaves.