This weekend, I was lucky enough to find not one, but two new Byrdcliffe books. I also was lucky enough to make the acquaintance of the collector and bookseller, Lowell Thing. Mr. Thing is an expert on decorated bindings, in particular those of Margaret Armstrong. He has given talks on the subject at the New York Society Library, and has also served as president of the Friends of Historic Kingston.
The first book is C[lara] H[arrison] Stranahan’s A History of French Painting. According to the glowing review in The Brooklyn Eagle. “The work would have been arduous enough if all the materials which she has utilized had been, by some impossible literary legerdemain, placed at her disposal with due reference to chronology and sequence.” The founder of Barnard College, Stranahan was referred to as “the best educated woman in the United States.” In addition to her book on French painting, she was a frequent contributor to magazines and other periodicals, as well as prominent member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Imagine my delight when I arrived to pick up the Stranahan book and Mr. Thing had discovered a second Byrdcliffe book: Francis Palgrave’s The Golden Treasury. Even more exciting was the fact that I was already preparing a blog entry on that very book. Look for that later this week, but in the meantime, here’s a picture of both Bolton Brown bookplates for you to enjoy.
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