“Miss Gartside’s immediate eye”

This chapter examines three publications by the English colour theorist Mary Gartside (active 1781–1809) with regard to their role as illustrated publications on the subject of colour. Gartside’s works are exemplary of a category of experimental illustrated books published shortly before the rise of lithography. In the early nineteenth century, authors and publishers were faced with the challenge of adequately representing concepts of colour in colour and relied largely on the work-intensive method of hand-colouring. These books are now rare and reflect a particular phase in print culture and in the material history of colour studies. The chapter closely examines Gartside’s books and sets them into the context of earlier, contemporary and later illustrated publications on colour.