1900 Cricket on the Hearth Dickens Margaret Armstrong Cover Antique Putnam

1900 Cricket on the Hearth Dickens Margaret Armstrong Cover Antique Putnam  A beautiful first-edition copy of Charles Dickens' beloved Christmas tale The Cricket on the Hearth, published in 1900 by G.P. Putnam's Sons at the Knickerbocker Press, New York. Illustrated throughout with designs by Frederick Simpson Coburn, including full-page plates. The stunning green cloth cover features a gilt-and-color holly and ribbon design signed with the MA monogram of Margaret Armstrong, one of the most celebrated American decorative book designers of the era — her bindings are actively collected in their own right.  Condition: the covers are bright and the gilt decoration is strikingly well-preserved with minimal wear to the spine ends and corners. The first 2 pages have become loose from the binding (as shown in photos) — a common issue with the tight sewing structure of these decorative-era bindings — otherwise the book is in fair-to-good condition overall, with clean, unmarked interior pages and crisp illustrations throughout. A charming decorative piece and genuine first edition for the Dickens or antique book collector, priced to reflect the binding issue.  Smoke-free home.