Thirteenth Century Belfry; Hotel De Ville Abbeville

1942. Etching on buff wove J Whatman handmade paper with a partial watermark, 3 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches (89 x 44 mm), full margins. Signed in pencil and inscribed "III" in the lower margin. A proof impression before the trimming of the plate (Fletcher states only two trial proof impressions of the first state before the trimming of the plate). Printed by the artist. No visible defects. A beautifully inked impression with all of the fine details printing clearly.

[Fletcher 378]. Miniature Series No. 31
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.