Marse Chan: a Tale of Old Virginia

Alice Cordelia Morse|Thomas Nelson Page|Charles Scribner's Sons

1892 · Cream cloth covered boards with dark green and gold decoration · Drawings and Prints

A leading New York book-cover designer in the late nineteenth century, Morse studied at the Woman’s Art School of the Cooper Union, then under John La Farge before working for Louis C. Tiffany as a painter and designer of stained glass. In 1887 she began to concentrate on book-covers, fufilling eighty-three commissions for New York commercial publishers by 1905. Complementing the text, she chose imagery ranging from classical, to Renaissance, Celtic, Arabic, Gothic, Rococo, Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau. This example is bound in warm-white plain-weave cloth stamped in brown and gold and uses Art Nouveau ornament. "Marse Chan" comes from a four-title set of works written by Thomas Nelson Page, none of which include stamping on the spine.

Artist

Alice Cordelia Morse|Thomas Nelson Page|Charles Scribner's Sons

Date

1892

Medium

Cream cloth covered boards with dark green and gold decoration

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Alice C. Morse, 1923, transferred from the Library