Collecting Fine Bindings and Designs: Margaret Armstrong
- by Renee Roberts
Title page from Henry Van Dyke, Music and Other Poems. New York: Scribner’s, 1904. Signed by Margaret Armstrong in the plate.
Many of these works are in the Boston Book Company’s catalogue: books by E. Benjamin Andrews, Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews, Sir Edwin Arnold, James M. Barrie, W. C. Brownell, Mary E. Burt, Mrs. William Starr Dana, and series of books by H. C. Bunner, Frances Hodgson Burnett, George Washington Cable, Paul Leicester Ford, Robert Grant, Thomas Nelson Page, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Henry Van Dyke, among many others. Also included are exceptional designs for books by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and John Greenleaf Whittier.
In addition to the University of California, the University of Virginia (www.virginia.edu/oldbooks/exhibitions/armstrong.htm)has an extensive collection of Armstrong’s work and additional information on a curated Web page.
Armstrong’s designs are varied and range from an adaptation of the flowing two-dimensional Art Nouveau style with original typography, exquisite fine designs in gilt (such as the Music cover mentioned above) to heavily embossed and colored stained glass bindings. There is extensive use of images from the natural world; Armstrong in fact studied botany and wrote a field guide to Western flora (Margaret Armstrong, Field Book of Western Wild Flowers, New York: Putnam, 1915.) She collaborated from time to time with her sister, Helen Maitland Armstrong. Still active at the end of her life, Armstrong wrote well-received works of biography and mystery.
Armstrong’s books are still relative bargains — many nice copies are available, some very inexpensively, in common venues, such as ABE (www.abebooks.com) and eBay (www.ebay.com). These interesting and important designs are accessible to collectors of modest means and will continue to give pleasure to anybody who enjoys reading and owning a beautiful book.
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
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