Margaret Armstrong's Great Series; Cloth Color part 2

In the last post we began to look at cloth color as an aspect of trade binding design.  We also took a brief look at publishing practices such as the role of electrotyping in keeping books available for long periods, and “case binding” and how this method of bookbinding allowed publishers to meet increased consumer demand quickly and economically.  We examined several designs by two of the masters of trade binding design, Margaret Armstrong and Sarah Wyman Whitman, and why some books were published in differently colored cloth simultaneously--with John Greenleaf Whittier’s The Tent on the Beach issued in at least four different cloth colors.  We saw how cloth color alone can vary a design’s impact, sometimes dramatically, and how the color of the cloth used was not random, but was made by choice of the designer and/or the publisher, to serve both the design and the book buying public’s preferences.  

As promised, in this post we’ll look at the use of cloth color for “series” (or “editions”) of individual authors.  Since there will be lots of bindings to look at I’ve decided to limit myself to two Margaret Armstrong series, each of which uses the same cloth color to define the series; the different (though related) designs on each book distinguishes the individual titles.  With apologies for turning this topic into a saga, I’m now planning one or two more posts in this series.  In the next post I’ll look at one of my favorite series.  Since this one focuses on the use of one cloth color to “brand” an author, the next will examine how different cloth colors can complement designs for a single author series, by emphasizing the subject of each book.  I’ll also return to the “and beyond” in the title of our blog by discussing how we represent cloth color when we prepare descriptions for bindings in our collection.  A final post will focus on the concept of series as much as that of cloth color, with examples drawn from other Margaret Armstrong “series” in all their variety.   

It seems appropriate to let a family member begin our consideration of Margaret Armstrong’s great series.

National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month

To celebrate National Poetry Month here are a handful of cover designs from our collections.  All of them are from books of poetry.  Judging by their covers, these should contain some fine verses.  But we're not supposed to do that, are we?

A Margaret Armstrong design

From Theodore Brown Hapgood 

     

   By Amy Richards

Frank Berkeley Smith

  

Amy M. Sacker

Marion Louise Peabody

Two by Sarah Wyman Whitman,  The One Hoss Shay (right) was issued in several colors of cloth and "ooze calf" (with a texture something like suede) as seen on this copy.

Frank Hazenplug (see if you can spot the monogram*)

The Decorative Designers. The Daskam title was designed by Lee Thayer and was one of her favorite designs of those she created.

Burton Donnel Hughes

An excellent example of striped cloth, which had a brief vogue in the later 1840s. The front endpaper has the binder's label of Benjamin Bradley.

And our final two covers. The reason for selecting the first is self-explanatory; the cover may be a design of Gordon Ross, who illustrated the book. I added the second so you can finally see the cover of the book at the head of our blog.

Books pictured:

Horatio Sheafe Krans, ed. English love poems. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1909.

Edwin Arlington Robinson. The children of the night: a book of poems. Boston: Richard G. Badger & Company, 1897.

Henry Van Dyke. The builders, and other poems. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905.

Wilson, Robert Burns. The shadows of the trees. New York: R.R. Russell, 1898.
Frederic Lawrence Knowles. Love triumphant, a book of poems. Boston: Dana Estes & Company, 1904. 
R.L. Paget, ed. Poems of American patriotism, 1776-1898. Boston: L.C. Page and Co., 1898. 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The hanging of the crane, and other poems of the home. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1894. 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The one hoss shay, with its companion poems. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1892. 
Robert Manners. Cuba, and other verse. Chicago: Way and Williams, 1898. 
Josephine Daskam. Poems. New York, C. Scribner's Sons, 1903. 
Harvey Maitland Watts. The wife of Potiphar: with other poems. Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1911. 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Ballads and other poems. Boston: W.D. Ticknor, 1848. 
Edmund Vance Cooke. Impertinent poems. New York: Dodge Publishing Co., 1907.

Eddy, Mary Baker. Poems. Boston: The Trustees under the will of Mary Baker G. Eddy, 1910. 

*and here's the monogram from the cover of "Cuba and other verse":