In the eighteenth century, a German geologist established a colour classification system that would change our understanding of the visual world as we know it.
Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750–1817) published his mineral colour guide in an age that pre-dated the photograph, describing each hue as he saw it in written detail. His aim was to produce a reference book for artists, scientists, naturalists, and anthropologists detailing where each colour could be found on minerals in nature.
Three decades after its first conception, Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours was revised by Scottish painter Patrick Syme, who added more examples to the existing lists along with the addition of hand-crafted colour swatches. The result was a unique compendium of colour that showcased the beauty of nature across the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms.
“A treatise which ought to be in the hands of every mineralogist, and indeed in the possession of naturalists of every description.” – Inverness Courier, 1822
Werner’s original nomenclature was established in 1741 for the purposes of geological classification. Werner was a renowned geologist whose early theories about the earth’s crust and chronological succession in rocks earned him the title of the ‘father of German geology.’
His major work, Treatise on the External Characters of Fossils, sought to provide a revolutionary classification of colour for minerals, detailing the visual characteristics for readers in a comprehensive guide of 54 shades. A groundbreaking work for its time, Werner proposed a way of identifying rocks and minerals using the five senses—sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing—determining colour as the most identifiable element.
With no standard classification of colour used for documenting observations in the sciences, Werner set out to create a nomenclature that could be used in both the field and laboratory. The colours were split into eight categories of main colours (red, yellow, blue, green, brown, grey, black, and white), which were then broken down further by descriptive modifiers, much like the system earlier established by Carl Linnaeus for cataloguing botanical specimens.
Although Werner’s work was comprehensive, with its variations for each colour totalling over 200 colour samples, it was published un-illustrated, meaning that those without access to the minerals he was describing would struggle to differentiate between each stone.
Werner believed in the value of denotation, crafting distinctive and poetic terminology to identify each colour he listed. He includes descriptions of how to mix each colour, as well as suggesting other minerals of the same hue to aid the reader in visual reference. These additional pieces of information further defined Werner’s taxonomy in the absence of physical colour swatches, aiming for a succinct and detailed volume for practical use despite its un-illustrated nature.
Werner was highly dismissive of the use of painted colour swatches to enhance tables of natural colours as they were prone to fading over time, marking their reliability in standardisation defunct. For the purposes of teaching, he favoured colour swatches prepared on porcelain enamel, hailing their durability and accuracy despite them proving impractical for everyday study.
In 1814, Patrick Syme revised and expanded Werner’s early colour chart for the purposes of wider use across the arts and sciences. Working with the mineral nomenclature as a foundation, Syme’s adaptation included additional and corresponding examples across the animal and vegetable kingdoms, doubling the number of shades included in the original volume.
Poetic names are applied to each colour and its corresponding examples. The lyrically named ‘skimmed-milk white’ is described in Syme’s volume as: ‘snow white, mixed with a little berlin blue and ash grey’ and is attributed to the colour of the human eyeballs, the back of the petals of Blue Hepatica, and the colour of the common opal. Others appear named after those on which they are found. Lavender Purple, for example, describes the colour of dried lavender flowers, while in the animal kingdom, it is identified as the ‘light parts of spots on the underwings of a Peacock Butterfly’ as well as porcelain jasper.
Writing in the introduction to his 1814 edition, Syme notes that “names of colours are frequently misapplied, and often one name given indiscriminately to many colours… an object may be described as one such a colour by one person, and perhaps mistaken by another for quite a different tint.” Unlike the colour recipes commonly found in art techniques, Syme’s intention was to articulate the source of each colour through its compounds, making it easier to interpret the different shades and how they were created. By pairing the colour swatches with their descriptions and examples, he endeavoured to create a common chromatic taxonomy that was succinct across all disciplines, leaving little margin for error for those using it in the different fields.
Werner’s nomenclature was fundamental to his geological teachings, and while he included the majority of key colour groups, chromatic precision fell secondary to the theory of identifying minerals and how to describe them. This resulted in the exclusion of colours like purple and orange, which, when Syme came to the work in 1814, were regarded as key tones in the creative palette. Working from the perspective of a practicing artist, Syme introduced the purple and orange to the nomenclature, basing his additions on the rules of updated artistic methodologies and colour theory (including those of Newton, which Werner had previously dismissed). In listing orange and purple as independent and principal hues alone, he added seventeen new colours to the existing collection.
By providing a whole new classification for colours, the eccentric taxonomy of Werner and Syme attracted interest from both scientists and artists alike. As a tool intended to be used regularly, Syme understood the importance of longevity in his work. Despite Werner’s opposition to painted samples in colour charts, Syme utilised his experience and tools at hand to produce durable pigments for his colour washes. He undertook vigorous testing to ensure consistency across the published volumes, which resulted in the colour swatches being pasted in each one by hand. Sheets of the colour were created, and small, individual squares were cut out and placed into each volume. Each came with a warning to the reader for careful handling as to ensure the product was kept in its best condition. This guarantee of consistency across the nomenclature placed it at an advantage to those which had been published around the same time, and made the it an indispensable standard reference in both disciplines.
A young Charles Darwin utilised the unique classification system on his epoch voyage around the world in 1831, identifying his observations using the colours found in the volume. He writes: “I had been struck by the beautiful colour of the sea when seen through the chinks of a straw hat… according to Werner nomenclature ‘Indigo with a little Azure blue’. The sky at the time was ‘Berlin with little ultra marine’ & there were some cirro cumili scattered about.”
Similarly, in the arts, the effects of the nomenclature were tenfold. At a time when colour theory was constantly being explored and evolved, Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours occupied a position that represented the universality of the world through a definitive standardisation. It established some of the classic colour names still used today like French grey, primrose yellow, and snow white. Over a century later colour systems like Pantone and Munsell established modern colour systems founded in the nineteenth century taxonomy.
The visual addition of Syme’s colour swatches enabled precision and consistency in documentation at a time when recording observations relied upon lengthy written descriptions and hand-illustrated examples. By establishing a perceivable and articulate colour guide, scientific documentation became much more reliable because of it.
First published in 1814, this small volume comprises a collection of 110 swatches displaying nature’s colour palette together with their poetical descriptions.
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