16 pp. introductory text followed by 157 different applied color swatches on 24 cardstock leaves. Large octavo (9 5/8 x 7 inches). Publisher's cloth with illustrated front cover. Some light soiling to cloth, former ownership stamps on front flyleaf and title page, extremely mild scattered foxing to text pages, color swatches bright, missing one acetate overlay sheet, overall very good. Frankfurt am Main: I.G. Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft, n.d. (circa 1930).

I.G. Farbenindusrie AG, most commonly known as IG Farben, was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate formed by the merger of six different companies in 1925. It was once the largest chemical and pharmaceutical company in the world, and the largest company in Europe. They worked in all areas of those two indusstries, with three company scientists even winning the Nobel prize for their work. The company was a major government contractor and Nazi Party donor, purging itself of its Jewish employees in the 1930s. In the 1940s, IG Farben relied on slave labor from concentration camps, was involved in medical experiments on inmates at several camps, and supplied the poison gas Zyklon B to camp gas chambers. At the end of the war, the company was seized by the Allies, the directors put on trial, and the company subsequently split up into its constituent companies.

One of the areas in which IG Farben dominated the industry was in the production of synthetic dyes. This particular volume represents a color swatch book for letterpress, lithograph, and offset printing. The bulk of the volume consists of 157 lithographed color samples, in gradients of every color in the rainbow, the swatches covered with protective acetate overlays. The facing pages are printed with the technical details on each color, including the name of the dye, its properties when used in various applications, and other notes.

Extremely scarce; as of July 2026, OCLC locates only a single holding of this volume at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Leipzig.

Book ID: 53712

Price: $1,500.00