1909 Peerless Japanese Transparent Water Colors Booklet (Used)

This is a fascinating product: 15 water color film leaflets which one places small clips of in a saucer, adding water to dissolve the color. Remove the film and dilute the paint to the preferred shade and start painting. It promises smooth and even flow over any paper surface to form an almost unlimited number of shades and tints. The colors include Geranium Pink, Japonica Scarlet, Wistaria Violet, and Pearl Gray.
 
Originally created in 1885 as a way to colorize film, by 1909 the chemist behind the product had found other uses for it. The booklet includes ‘General Directions’ (including preparing an outline and dipping it in water if the color is too dark, and to always color the sky first). It advises on brushes, how to use it with children, in school work, on photographs and on lantern slides. It could also be used for bromide enlargements and half-tone prints.
 
Each color film is preceded by a page describing how to use it, how to mix it to create other hues, and how to overlay it on other colors for special effects.
 
The brochure is copyrighted by C. F. Nicholson, first in 1902 and again in 1909. The film was manufactured by the Japanese Water Color Co, New York, USA. 
 
Today Nicholson's Peerless Transparent sells color film papers at  https://peerlesscolorlabs.com/ where the focus now on portable watercolors for sketchers and artists. The selections are much broader too, including Lip Smackin’ Pink and Arlee’s Opera.
 
We believe this belonged to Alice Burr who would have been an aspiring artist at the time. Several color films have been clipped (this is used, not new), a few pages have minor tears, there are notes throughout, but none of that lessens the excitement of seeing if these colors still work… 
 
H 3 1/2” x L 8 1/8"
 
Disclaimer: We have tried to make sure colors shown in photos are representative of the real colors of each item. We have tried to identify all imperfections in descriptions, but we may have missed some. If you are unhappy with your purchase, let us know.