MARGARET ARMSTRONG BINDING

Van Dyke, Henry (1852–1933)

The Unknown Quantity: A Book of Romance and Some Half-Told Tales [Margaret Armstrong Binding — Illustrated]

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916. AN ARTS-AND-CRAFTS BINDING SURROUNDS VAN DYKE'S TALES OF ROMANCE, FAITH, AND MYSTERY.
A collection of nineteen stories and “half-told tales” by Henry Van Dyke, combining romance, allegory, faith, humor, mystery, and the supernatural. Van Dyke uses the mathematical “unknown quantity” as a metaphor for the uncertain and intangible elements of human experience.

ROMANCE AND THE UNKNOWN.
The collection includes The Wedding-Ring, The King's Jewel, The Music-Lover, The Unruly Sprite, A Change of Air, The Effectual Fervent Prayer, The Sad Shepherd, and The Mansion. Contemporary descriptions emphasized the mystical element running through the stories.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: MARGARET ARMSTRONG DECORATED CLOTH.
Publisher's decorated cloth with an elaborate floral and fruit design stamped across the upper board in multiple colors and gilt; similarly decorated and lettered spine. Top edge gilt. 7.5 inches tall. xiv, 370 pages.

Illustrated with a color frontispiece and six additional plates after Charles S. Chapman, Garth Jones, Sigismond de Ivanowski, Paul Julien Meylan, and Blendon Campbell. Title-page ornament, headpieces, and endpieces by Garth Jones.

CONDITION: Very Good. Moderate shelf and handling wear; corners lightly rubbed with additional rubbing at the spine ends. Binding remains tight and square. Text is clean with light, even age-toning. Frontispiece tissue guard partially detached. Front free endpaper excised. Previous owner's bookplate present.

LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE — THE MARGARET ARMSTRONG BINDING.
Margaret Armstrong was among the most important American trade-binding designers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her bindings are particularly associated with stylized botanical designs worked directly into publisher's cloth using gilt and colored stamping.

HENRY VAN DYKE'S HALF-TOLD TALES.
First published in 1912, the collection brought together nineteen stories ranging from realistic romance to religious allegory and supernatural or mystical fiction. Van Dyke—minister, Princeton professor, diplomat, poet, and popular author—was particularly known for fiction in which moral and spiritual questions were carried through accessible narrative.

GENRES: American Literature, Short Stories, Romance, Allegorical Fiction, Religious Fiction, Illustrated Books, Decorative Bindings, Arts and Crafts, American Book Design.

Item #22471

Price: $35.00