1. Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Books

Much of the basic information regarding Caroline Armington’s prints is from the Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Books.
Caroline Armington had two Etching Record Books.
The first one covers the year 1908 to the year 1923. The second one covers the year 1924 to the year 1938.
The originals of the Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Books are in the collection of the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
 
Each Etching Record Book has two parts.
The first one, upfront, is a chronological list of the print titles for each of the years covered by the book. The list includes a column with the letter ‘’f’’ on top and shows numbers which have been increased on occasions. These numbers seem to be the prices of the print in French francs.
The second part contains detailed information for each of the prints in the same order as that of the list. In a few cases the order is slightly different.
The information recorded for each print varies greatly from print to print. Typically, it would include:
-the print title and the changes of the title
-the print number
-the planned number of prints
-the total number of impressions
-the number of states
-the number of impressions for a given state
-some notes related to dedications, sales, paper used for printing, prints sent to individuals or to organizations, destruction of plate, print size, etc.
 
2. Dates of the Prints

The dates of the prints are those recorded by Caroline Armington in her Etching Record Books. Unless otherwise noted these dates are those of the year when the plate was originally etched. In general the date of the print is confirmed by the date etched in the plate. For certain prints, there are some discrepancies between the dates recorded or shown. These cases are recorded in the comments.
For certain states, the date of the state has been recorded in the Etching Record Books.
 
3. Titles of the Prints

The titles of the prints are those recorded by Caroline Armington in her Etching Record Books.
When the title shown on a print is slightly different from that shown in the Etching Record Books, it is shown in bracket beside the original title.
For some prints, Caroline Armington has changed the title and has recorded the changes in her Etching Record Books. For some other prints, the change of title was not recorded. For all these prints, one entry has been made for each of the titles (with a cross-reference).
For a few prints, prior to etching the title on the print, Caroline Armington has sometimes handwritten the title in English rather than in French as recorded in her Etching Record Books. For these prints, one entry has been made for each of the titles (with a cross-reference).
 
4. Catalogue Numbers

The print catalogue numbers are those assigned to her prints by Caroline Armington and as recorded in her Etching Record Books. Caroline Armington has numbered her prints from number 1 to number 551. They are shown in this catalogue under the format CA-xxx (from CA-001 to CA-551). In general, they reflect the chronological order of the prints.
In addition, four prints have been assigned the numbers 146a, 273a, 353 bis and 417 bis by Caroline Armington (CA-146a, CA-273a, CA-353 bis and CA-417 bis in this catalogue).
One print may have been assigned the number 7a (‘’Pont du Cheval, Bruges’’). Since this could not be firmly established, this print has been considered as not numbered and has been assigned a number (CA-007-3) as for the other unnumbered prints.
For some prints, and for an unknown reason, Caroline Armington has not assigned a number to her print despite the fact that we have found evidences that a fair number of them have been printed. For these, a number has been given for the purpose of this catalogue. They have been given a number which is made of the number of the print which precedes them in the Etching Record Books with the addition of a sequence number. For example, CA-010-1 is the first print not numbered after print CA-010 and before print CA-011. Similarly, print CA-010-4 is the fourth print not numbered after print CA-010 and before print CA-011.
For the prints with significant variation(s) in the title or a new title, recorded or not recorded in the Etching Record Books, one entry has been made for each of the titles. The original title was assigned the original print number and the new (or different or alternate) titles were assigned the same number with a ‘’-A’’ and a sequence number. For example, CA-010, CA-010-A1 and CA-010-A2.
Similarly, for the prints for which Caroline Armington has handwritten the print title in English rather than in French as recorded in her Etching Record Books, the original French title was assigned the original print number and the English title was assigned the same number with a ‘’-E’’.
For prints for which a new plate was etched with the same title and no new number had been given in the Etching Record Books, one entry has been made for each of the plates. The original plate was assigned the original print number and the new plate was assigned the same number with a ‘’-N’’. For example, CA-396 and CA-396-N.
In addition, the color prints have been identified with a ‘’-C’’ at the end of their number. For example, CA-012-1-C and CA-031-C.
The same thing was done for prints which were recorded as being printed in black and in color under the same number. The original title was assigned the original print number and the color print was assigned the same number with a ‘’-C’’.
For the two prints (CA-206 and CA-347) which were shown in the Etching Record Books as ‘’sold to the Société Française des Beaux-Arts’’, different types of edition have been found. The original editions (by Caroline Armington) were assigned with their original numbers CA-206 and CA-347; the subsequent editions (by Caroline Armington or by the Société Française des Beaux-Arts) were assigned the letters -a, -b and -c in lower case. For example CA-206-a and CA-206-b.
Prints which are not listed in Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Books have been given a H.C. (Hors Catalogue) serial number such as CA-H.C.-001.
 
5. Color Plates and Color Prints

For the year 1909, Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Book lists five (5) prints regrouped under the title ‘’Color Plates’’. Four (4) of those prints have the same title as prints already listed for the same year or the year before.
For the year 1910, Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Book lists three (3) prints regrouped under the title ‘’Color Plates’’. None of those prints has the same title as prints published earlier.
For the year 1911, Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Book lists three (3) prints regrouped under the title ‘’Color Plates’’. None of those prints has the same title as prints published earlier.
For the year 1912, Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Book lists two (2) prints with the note ‘’Color’’. These prints have the same title as two (2) prints already listed for the same year.
It is assumed that Caroline Armington has etched a ‘’new’’ plate for these ‘’Color’’ prints despite the fact that none of them had been assigned a number or a note in her Etching Record Book. All these have been assigned a print number.
For the year 1911, Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Book has also eleven (11) prints with the note ‘’in color’’ for a number of prints in addition to a number of ‘’Black’’ prints. It is assumed that Caroline Armington has used the same plate for these black and white and color prints. For these color prints, the letter ‘’C’’ has been added to the ‘’black’’ print number. For example: CA-031 and CA-031-C.
 
6. Number of States

The number of states for each of the etchings is that recorded by Caroline Armington in her Etching Record Books.
The number of states is not always recorded for each etching.
For some etchings, we have found evidences that these records are not accurate and that there was one or more additional state(s) for the etching.
The state number shown is the state number of the print to the best of our knowledge.
 
7.  Number of Impressions and Sizes of Editions

The Number of Impressions and Sizes of Editions for each of the etchings are those recorded by Caroline Armington in her Etching Record Books.
This information is not always recorded for each etching.
Planned Edition: This is indicated by ‘’Tirage’’ or ‘’Edition’’ followed by a number (25, 50, 75, 80 or 100). Some editions were shown as ‘’not limited’’.
When recorded, this number seems to be always applicable to the final state only.
Total Number of Impressions: This is indicated by a number followed by ‘’ep’’ (épreuves).
When recorded, the Total Number of Impressions number, most of the times, seems to include all the states but, on a very few occasions, seems to refer to the final state only.
There are evidences (print serial numbers shown in the Etching Record Book, print numbers in pencil on the prints found in collections or on the market) that some prints accounted for in these total numbers of impressions may not have been numbered and sold or even, not have been printed. Therefore, this number should be considered as the possible maximum number of prints for all the states of a given etching.
On occasions, Caroline Armington has also recorded the number of prints for a given state, some prints numbers or prints serials numbers, some series of numbers of prints, the number of trial prints (Épreuve d’essai), the number of ‘’special prints’’ dedicated to her husband Frank Armington, the number of other special prints, the names of people to whom she has sent or dedicated a print, the names of organizations to which she has sent a print or sold or given a plate, the number of prints pulled after the ‘’crossing of the plate’’.
                                                                                                       
8. Dimensions of Prints

The dimensions of the print are those recorded for a few prints by Caroline Armington in her Etching Record Books and those found in many other sources. Some may be approximate. Measurements refer to the plate area only and are listed as Height x Width in cm.
 
9. Papers

For some etchings Caroline Armington has recorded information concerning the type of paper used for certain prints in her Etching Record Books (‘’Japanese paper’’, ‘’papier Hollande’’, ‘’papier d’Arches’’).
For a number of prints Caroline Armington has indicated that they were printed on ‘’old paper’’.
It has been reported that Caroline would purchase old ledgers or old sheets of paper from the booksellers on the Left Bank in Paris to produce her etchings on.
This use of ‘’old paper’’ has been noted on a fair number of prints (see CA-182, CA-288, CA-307, CA-453).
The use of similar sheets of old paper has also been noted (see CA-183 and CA-225)
 
10. Plates

When information concerning the plate for certain prints is recorded by Caroline Armington in her Etching Record Books, this information is reported in the notes for each print. In general, very little information is available about the present location of Caroline Armington’s plates which may still be in existence.
 
11. Printers and Editors

In general, very little information is available about the printers or editors used by Caroline Armington for printing or distributing her etchings.​
​
​​