Lot 346
MARGARET MACDONALD (1865-1933)
‘THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE’ BOOKPLATE, 1896
Auction: Design Since 1860 Day Two | Thurs 15th October | Lots 246 to 524
Description
printed paper, printed artist's mark lower left MARGT. MACDONALD/ INVT. ET DELT., framed
Dimensions
11.5cm x 8.8cm (frame size 37.4cm x 22.5cm)
Provenance
Estate of the late Eric Sloane
Footnote
Literature: The Studio. vol. XI, 1897, pp. 92, 98 (related bookplate), illus.
Ver Sacrum. vol. 23, Vienna, 1901, p. 396 (related bookplate), illus.
McLellan Galleries Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh: A Memorial Exhibition. 1933, cat. no. 118.
When Margaret Macdonald designed this bookplate in 1896, she had begun working in partnership with her sister Frances Macdonald at their studio at 128 Hope Street in Glasgow. The design centres on the elongated form of a naked woman, representing Wisdom, with her children, her hair merging with the tendrils of a fruit-bearing tree, the ‘Tree of Knowledge’. The bookplate was made for John Edwards, a patron about whom little is known. The image was also published in the ’Studio’ magazine in 1897 and the Austrian Secession Movement periodical ’Ver Sacrum‘ in 1901.
