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Burnet, John : A Practical treatise on Painting in Three Parts

jas. Carpenter, London, 1828

4to. (10 3/4 x 8 1/8 inches), full crushed brown morocco with a triple gilt fillet border surrounding a series of blind blocked borders and four small corner fleurons; the spine, which is lightly sunned, has four raised bands and is nicely gilt titled and decorated within the compartments. Board edges gilt, inner gilt fillets, a.e.g. Signed in gilt on the inner front fore-edge turn-in: COLNAGHI COCKSPUR STREET.The work with a general title (above) contains three separate essays as follows: Practical Hints on Composition in Painting (1828); Practical Hints on Light and Shade in Painting (1827); and, Pracitcal Hints on Colour in Painting (1828). Each essay contains a section of etched illustrations, some by Burnet himself but most after the world's acknowledged masters: Titian, Vandyke, Rubens, Rembrandt, et. al. There are over 100 etchings from celebrated pictures of the Italian, Venetian, Flemish, Dutch and English schools. Particularly good are the hand-colored examples from the last part. The book was very popular as evidenced by the fact that it was published well into the last third of the century. The three sections, each with its own title-page, are designated respectively third, second, and second edition. The letterpress is nicely printed by Chas. Whittingham.Colnaghi & Son, one of London's leading art dealers since the eighteenth century, is seldom thought of as a source of finely bound books. Ramsden (London Bookbinders 1780-1840), however, on page 52 makes the following observation about a Colnaghi bound book seen in 1951 at Marks: "Impressed in gilt on the inside edge of a russia binding on an 1818 publiction." A scarce example.

Signed Binding: COLNAGHI COCKSPUR STREET

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