Chartres in Miniature
1939. Etching on fine, laid antique Head & Co. paper with a partial watermark. 1/2 x 13/16 (13 x 21 mm), full margins. Signed, dated, and inscribed "II" in pencil, lower margin. A trial proof impression from the second state (of two), printed by the artist, aside from the regular edition of 519. In superb condition with excellent inking and inky plate edges.
[Fletcher 330].
Fletcher states a discrepency in the number of impressions in the regular edition of this plate. Arms in two different places lists the edition size as 471; yet his notes indicate an additional 48 impressions.
French Church Series No. 42
Christmas Card Series No. 20
Miniature Series No. 23
Brooch Series No. 4
Paper: Arms was typical of the artists of this period - he was obsessed with paper, a mania for collecting paper that could/would improve an edition. The quantity he left after his death, distributed by his wife to fellow artists, witnesses his love for finely made paper -paper interesting because of texture, color, distinctive weave.
The earliest paper known to have been used by Arms came from a Baptismal Register Kirchen Ordnung, The Reformed Church, Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 1708, bought in a bookshop in Philadelphia.
His early prints, 1915-1919, evidence paper taken from old books with gilded edges. Some prints appear on stationary from the Cisalpine Napoleonic Italy, still bearing the estampe of the office or department; others carry penned ink page numbers, taken from old ledgers of the Eighteenth Century-all beautiful shades of grey, blue and green, handmade, ribbed and otherwise. Some of his color aquatints were printed on full sheets of heavy chine or Japanese vellum, giving a sense of luxury in the richness of the stock and the width of the margins. There was a myriad of modern papers gleaned in England, France, Italy and the United States. -William Dolan Fletcher, A Man For All Times, p. 15.
Item number: 815
Price: $250.00
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