John Rauch's Receipts on Dying, in a Series of Letters to a Friend

John Rauch

New York: Printed for Joseph I. Badger & Co., Proprietors in New-Haven, 1815

[American Textiles: Industry and Workshop recipes] A rare early American commercial treatise on dying.  Bound in a contemporary leather spine and tips, over moderately worn, marbled boards. 97 pages ; 17 cm.  Scattered staining, spotting throughout. 

Rauch's book on dying contained instructions for commercial dying used in the production of wool and cotton fabrics as well as yarn. It was first published in New Haven and New York City.  Rauch was a Swiss dyer who had worked in Germany and France.  His expertise as an instructor helped establish the commercial dying industry in New England the Mid-Atlantic.  See: Linda Jean Thorsen. "The Merchants and the Dyers: The Rise of a Dyeing Service Industry in Massachusetts and New York 1800-1850." Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, 2016. p. 497. (290).  Subtitle: "Containing correct and exact copies of all his best receipts on dyeing cotton & woollen goods, obtained and improved by him, during twelve years practice at different manufactories, in Switzerland, France, Germany & America. Also a true description of his invented substitute for woad, being a cheap and preferable material, and the produce of this country."  Refs: Rink 1855; Shaw & Shoemaker, 35749.