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<b>Bonhams:</b> MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp, [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled

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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. By Renee Roberts This weekend I was, as usual, working, going over some boxes of books that had just arrived, and a slender volume caught my eye. It was bound in green silk, with the word “Music” in a stylized script encircled by a wreath of doves, a violin in the center with two horns to either side, and a flurry of ribbons ending in small hearts, in gilt. The title page was also pretty —printed in red and black again with stylized script, the “u” in “Music” a roman “V”, the “R” a delicate toe–pointing, slightly trembling Art Nouveau marvel, surrounded by a design in black and white, partly in reverse, of entwined flowers and vines, finished off with a muse in flowing robes playing what looks to be an early stringed instrument, perhaps a lute. And then the expected “MA” at the top, indicating that this was the work of one of America’s most gifted book designers, and one of the earliest recognizable women book artists, Margaret Neilson Armstrong (1867-1944). This particular book was one of a series Armstrong designed for works by Henry Van Dyke and published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, clearly more notable for their design than their content. One thing led to another, and I found myself perusing The Boston Book Company’s (www.bostbook.com) online catalogue of its Margaret Armstrong collection (asking price $19,500.00). With over 300 titles, the catalogue is a handy guide to Armstrong’s work, both in books bearing her name as author and/or illustrator, as well as books containing decorative bindings, titles, and internal decorations, signed and unsigned, as well as books that might be attributed to her. Armstrong lived in Greenwich Village, on West 10th Street, virtually her entire life. She was born to an old New York family of means (descended, according to one writer, from Peter Stuyvesant) who had her privately educated and trained by working artists. According to Charles B. Gullans and John Espey, Armstrong collectors and authors of the primary bibliography of her work (Margaret Armstrong and American trade bindings: with a checklist of her designed bindings and covers. Los Angles: Department of Special Collections, University Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991), most of her work was done for Scribner’s — some three hundred book designs — between 1890 and 1940. One of her most famous series, the works of Myrtle Reed, was done for Putnam. Armstrong was also hired by publishers in New York and Chicago, including Macmillan, Harper, Bancroft, McClurg, Dodd Mead, and Bobbs-Merrill.
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.

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.

By Renee Roberts

This weekend I was, as usual, working, going over some boxes of books that had just arrived, and a slender volume caught my eye. It was bound in green silk, with the word “Music” in a stylized script encircled by a wreath of doves, a violin in the center with two horns to either side, and a flurry of ribbons ending in small hearts, in gilt. The title page was also pretty —printed in red and black again with stylized script, the “u” in “Music” a roman “V”, the “R” a delicate toe–pointing, slightly trembling Art Nouveau marvel, surrounded by a design in black and white, partly in reverse, of entwined flowers and vines, finished off with a muse in flowing robes playing what looks to be an early stringed instrument, perhaps a lute. And then the expected “MA” at the top, indicating that this was the work of one of America’s most gifted book designers, and one of the earliest recognizable women book artists, Margaret Neilson Armstrong (1867-1944). This particular book was one of a series Armstrong designed for works by Henry Van Dyke and published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, clearly more notable for their design than their content.

One thing led to another, and I found myself perusing The Boston Book Company’s (www.bostbook.com) online catalogue of its Margaret Armstrong collection (asking price $19,500.00). With over 300 titles, the catalogue is a handy guide to Armstrong’s work, both in books bearing her name as author and/or illustrator, as well as books containing decorative bindings, titles, and internal decorations, signed and unsigned, as well as books that might be attributed to her.

Armstrong lived in Greenwich Village, on West 10th Street, virtually her entire life. She was born to an old New York family of means (descended, according to one writer, from Peter Stuyvesant) who had her privately educated and trained by working artists. According to Charles B. Gullans and John Espey, Armstrong collectors and authors of the primary bibliography of her work (Margaret Armstrong and American trade bindings: with a checklist of her designed bindings and covers. Los Angles: Department of Special Collections, University Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991), most of her work was done for Scribner’s — some three hundred book designs — between 1890 and 1940. One of her most famous series, the works of Myrtle Reed, was done for Putnam. Armstrong was also hired by publishers in New York and Chicago, including Macmillan, Harper, Bancroft, McClurg, Dodd Mead, and Bobbs-Merrill.

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.