Caroline Armington  Etching Record  Books

Much of the basic information recorded in this site 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.
 
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.
 
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)

 

Print Numbers

The print 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.
In addition, four prints have been assigned the numbers 146a, 273a, 353 bis and 417 bis by Caroline Armington.
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.
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. 

 Color Plates and Color Prints

Caroline Armington’s Etching Record Book lists some prints regrouped under the title ‘’Color Plates’’, some prints with the note ‘’Color’’ and some prints with the note ‘’in color’’ for a number of prints in addition to a number of ‘’Black’’ prints. 
 

 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.
 
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’’.
                                                                                                       
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.
 
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)
 

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.

 

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.​

 

OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

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Museum,  Libraries and other public collections

Art Galleries

Auction sites

Documents obtained from museums, universities and colleges libraries

Print Collectors and sellers

Newspapers, art magazines and books

Official  Journals

Exhibition catalogues

Auction catalogues

Biographies

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