Second copy located of the 1660 edition of a popular and influential practical manual by Andreas Helmreich, on the preparation of black, coloured and metallic writing ink and dyes (the metallic inks especially for writing on wood), the etching of marble and metals (copper, brass, tin, iron and steel, with special reference to etching armour and weapons), gilding and silvering (including the gilding of the edges of books), colouring parchment, paper and feathers, making sealing wax and glue, and other materials used for art and writing, including recipes and minute details of the preparation of the materials. Books of a similar nature with the title Kunstbüchlein appeared already in 1499 and reappeared in a new form by 1535, but Ferguson notes that Helmriech's work owes little or nothing to them, has only two or three recipes similar to those in Boltz's 1547 Illuminirbuch and is largely original.
All editions are rare and we have located only one other copy of the present 1660 edition, in the library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
With some minor restorations to the gutter margins of the title-page and with several small stains, and the whole somewhat dog-eared, very slightly browned and with occasional foxing and a marginal chip at the head of the dedication (perhaps removing an owner's name?), but the book is complete including even the 2 final blank leaves, and nearly all the leaves are in good condition. A rare and important work, giving a detailed account of the preparation of inks and of etching, as practiced in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ferchl, p. 224; KVK & WorldCat (1 copy); cf. Brüning 1331; Ferguson, Some early treatises on technological chemistry (1888), pp. 24-34 .