Item #5874 Directions for House and Ship Painting; Shewing in a plain and concise manner, the best method of preparing, mixing and laying the various colours now in use, designed for the use of learners. H. Reynolds.
Directions for House and Ship Painting; Shewing in a plain and concise manner, the best method of preparing, mixing and laying the various colours now in use, designed for the use of learners.
Directions for House and Ship Painting; Shewing in a plain and concise manner, the best method of preparing, mixing and laying the various colours now in use, designed for the use of learners.
Directions for House and Ship Painting; Shewing in a plain and concise manner, the best method of preparing, mixing and laying the various colours now in use, designed for the use of learners.
Directions for House and Ship Painting; Shewing in a plain and concise manner, the best method of preparing, mixing and laying the various colours now in use, designed for the use of learners.
Directions for House and Ship Painting; Shewing in a plain and concise manner, the best method of preparing, mixing and laying the various colours now in use, designed for the use of learners.
Directions for House and Ship Painting; Shewing in a plain and concise manner, the best method of preparing, mixing and laying the various colours now in use, designed for the use of learners.

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Directions for House and Ship Painting; Shewing in a plain and concise manner, the best method of preparing, mixing and laying the various colours now in use, designed for the use of learners.

New Haven: Printed by Eli Hudson, 1812. 8vo, original marbled paper wrappers. [5], 6-22 pp.

The exceptionally rare first edition of the first house and ship painting manual written by an American and not based on English printed sources, widely recognized for its importance to the understanding of historic paint colors in Federal period America.

A painter with some thirty years of experience when he published this work, Reynolds sought to provide information “for the use of those who have not been regularly instructed in the Art of painting.” He describes the techniques for mixing both oils and paints for outside work; the pigments and proportions for ten exterior paints, including such colors as straw, orange, pea-green, parrot green, etc.; the techniques for preparing oils and paints for inside work; the pigments and proportions for interior paints, including such colors as pearl, ice, Prussian blue, etc.; and concludes with directions for painting floor carpets or oiled cloth. Reynolds was the first to distinguish in print between paints for exterior and interior use, and was also the first to provide specifications for pigment proportions. In publishing these particulars, he not only made his trade secrets accessible to a general audience, but also left to posterity an unusual and valuable record of his practice.

This rare work first came to the attention of historic preservationists when the American Antiquarian Society acquired a copy in 1977. A facsimile edition was published the following year with an introduction by Richard Candee, who notes that “Reynolds’s pamphlet illustrates the growing fervor for the democratization of craft knowledge,” and calls it “a minor Rosetta stone for the recreation of historic paint colors.”

Hezekiah Reynolds (1756-1833) was born in Watertown, Connecticut, and lived in Roxbury and North Branford before moving to Wallingford prior to the end of the 18th century. He may have retired from painting some time prior to his death, as his probate inventory does not include any of the tools of his trade.

Rare. OCLC records just three copies, at Columbia, AAS, and the Peabody Essex Museum.

A lovely copy of this important rarity, in its original marbled paper wrappers.

CONDITION: Good, spine worn with small losses, loss to upper right corner of front wrapper and lower left corner of back wrapper, occasional foxing.

REFERENCES: Candee, Richard. “Introduction” to Reynolds, H. Directions for House and Ship Painting (Worcester, 1978); Schaffner, Cynthia V. A. and Susan Klein. “Two-Toned Finishes: American Grain-Painted Furniture, 1790-1880” in Folk Art, Spring 1998, p. 37.

Offered in partnership with Boston Rare Maps.

Item #5874

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