The laws of contrast of colour: and their application to the arts of painting, decoration of buildings, mosaic work, tapestry and carpet weaving, calico printing, dress, paper staining, printing, illumination, landscape and flower gardening, &c
A scientific treatise by the French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, published in London and New York by G. Routledge & Co. in 1857, setting out the laws of colour contrast for painters, dyers, weavers, printers and gardeners. The single plate shows two pairs of concentric discs, each with a central colour ringed by a contrasting band, with a 'See page 17' cross-reference printed beneath. A designer could take from it the simple method of testing how a surround shifts the apparent hue of a colour, using flat yellow and blue set against grey and ochre rings.
