Marguerite Kirmse — Dogs in the Field, signed

A signed Marguerite Kirmse hardcover of Dogs in the Field. Kirmse (1885–1954) was one of the most prolific American etchers of sporting dogs of her generation; her signature pool is now closed. Pencil flyleaf signature opposite an etched portrait.

The cover of Dogs in the Field by Marguerite Kirmse, a tan cloth hardcover with burgundy leather corners and a red rectangular leather label centered on the front board printed 'Dogs in the Field by Marguerite Kirmse' — The donated copy — tan-cloth-and-burgundy hardcover with the title on a red leather label. The reserved binding format is characteristic of the early-twentieth-century fine-printing tradition Kirmse’s books were issued in.

Catalog

Title: Dogs in the Field
Author / illustrator: Marguerite Kirmse (1885–1954)
Format: Hardcover, tan cloth with burgundy leather corners, red leather title label
Provenance: Pencil signature "Marguerite Kirmse" on flyleaf, opposite an etched dog portrait. Light foxing characteristic of the period paper.
Donated: May 2026

Who Marguerite Kirmse was

Marguerite Kirmse was born in Bournemouth, England in 1885 and emigrated to the United States in 1907. She trained as a harpist before turning to etching in her late twenties, taught herself the technique, and built one of the most successful illustration careers of any American etcher in the inter-war period. Her subject was always dogs — sporting dogs in the field (pointers, setters, retrievers, spaniels), terriers (especially Scottish terriers, which became something of a Kirmse signature), and the occasional working hound. Her etchings appeared in Sportsman magazine, Country Life, Field & Stream, and dozens of fine-print books from the 1920s through the 1940s.

She illustrated editions of Bob, Son of Battle, contributed dog portraits to commemorative volumes, and produced standalone etching portfolios that period collectors bought as much for the prints as for the texts. She died in 1954. Her etchings appear in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, and the AKC Museum of the Dog.

Why this copy matters

Kirmse’s signature pool is closed and has been since 1954. Each signed copy that surfaces is a finite, authenticatable artifact. The pencil signature on this copy’s flyleaf is in her characteristic flowing script, opposite one of her etched dog portraits — the placement convention that makes a Kirmse-signed copy more valuable than one signed in isolation, because the signature is in the etcher’s working relationship to her own image.

Signature"Marguerite Kirmse" — pencil, flyleaf, period hand, characteristic flowing script.

For the dog-art collector community — AKC Museum of the Dog patrons, Westminster Kennel Club historians, terrier-club specialists, sporting-dog-illustration archivists — signed Kirmse is a known commodity in a small market. The book’s next-home is a question of identifying the right collector, not whether one exists.

Multi-part bibliographic record

Cover of Dogs in the Field — tan cloth, red leather title label — **Cover.** Tan-cloth-and-burgundy hardcover with red leather title label.

Pencil signature 'Marguerite Kirmse' on a flyleaf, opposite an etched dog portrait — **Signature detail.** Pencil flyleaf signature, period hand. Opposite-page etching visible at top.

Title page of Dogs in the Field — **Title page.** Period typography.

Interior etched plate of a dog by Marguerite Kirmse — **Interior plate.** Representative Kirmse etching.

How it came in

Donated in May 2026 through NMLP. Donor scenario anonymized.

Where it’s going

The likely destination for a signed Kirmse hardcover with intact leather labels: a sporting-dog-art collector, an AKC Museum of the Dog patron, or a private collection of inter-war American etchers. Routes through specialty channels rather than NMLP’s standard resale flow.

External references & authoritative sources

Author / illustrator biography: Wikipedia: Marguerite Kirmse (1885–1954).
WorldCat / OCLC: search.worldcat.org — Kirmse works.
AKC Museum of the Dog: museumofthedog.org (New York City) — the principal scholarly archive for American dog art, holds Kirmse etchings in the permanent collection.
Metropolitan Museum of Art — Kirmse etchings: metmuseum.org.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs: loc.gov/pictures.
Smithsonian American Art Museum: americanart.si.edu.
Sporting-art auction houses: Bonhams, Christie’s, Skinner — have all sold Kirmse etchings and signed books in documented sales.

Citation (Chicago): Eldred, Josh. "Signed Marguerite Kirmse — Dogs in the Field." NMLP Donation Archive — Notable Curiosities. Albuquerque: New Mexico Literacy Project, May 2, 2026. https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/archive/curiosities/dogs-in-the-field-kirmse.

Related on this site

Back to the Curiosities index
Signed Gierach — Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing — the related sporting-literature signed-by-deceased-author entry.