City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Sonnets from the Portuguese
New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1902.
Gold on light blue cloth. There are several other variations of cover designs: gold was stamped on white paper vellum, on green buckram, on pale green or lavender cloth, on purple paper over boards, and on full red calf. Also exists with blindstamping and gold on suede.
The cover, stamped in gold, offers a quiet aperture into some of the most beautiful love sonnets of the nineteenth century. Armstrong also created color decorations for the title page, as well as floral decorations for the forty-four sonnets. A highly gifted botanist, she portrayed real flowers, including stylized columbines and heart-shaped leaves in an Art Nouveau style. Armstrong dedicated the illustrations to E.D.L., her beloved friend Elizabeth Duvall Littell.
Library copy a gift of Lowell Thing.