gems, color science, color theory, art, anthropology, history of color

Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours (1814/1821) is an illustrated colour manual authored by Scottish botanical illustrator Patrick Syme. Containing painted colour swatches, the book was based on the colour system compiled by mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner. First published in 1814, Werner’s Nomenclature was used by Charles Darwin in his scientific observations on the voyage of HMS Beagle. The publication was influential among nineteenth-century colour theorists, artists, and decorators, and can be viewed as a predecessor of modern named colour systems such as Pantone. The colours are illustrated and described, and examples shown of their use in ornithological plates in The Anatomy of Colour by Patrick Baty.