A Hong Kong Canal Boat
1919. Aquatint with hand coloring in watercolor on watermarked, laid Arches paper, 8 1/16 x 5 9/16 inches (206 x 142 mm), full margins. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered 22/40 in pencil, lower margin. From the fourth state (of 4), consisting of a total of 80 impressions, only 40 of which have hand coloring in watercolor. In superb condition with light toning and archival tape tabs at the top right and left corners, and lower right corner on the verso, well outside of the image area. Printed by Frederick Reynolds.
[Fletcher 23].
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, John Taylor Arms, a Man for All Time: The Artist and His Work. Sign of the Arrow, Eastern Press, 1982. p. 15].
Item number: 928
Price: $2,000.00
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