Description

Best Of Friends by P. Buckley Moss

Introduction

Best Of Friends by P. Buckley Moss is a 1998 rare, limited, numbered lithograph portraying two young girls seated closely together with a book open between them. A tall window rises behind the pair, giving the composition an unusually vertical structure while keeping the shared reading moment intimate and quiet.

The artwork is built around companionship rather than activity. The girls sit shoulder to shoulder, their attention directed toward the same bright pink book. Soft greens, creams, aqua, warm wood tones, and restrained linework allow that simple interaction to remain the visual and emotional center.

Canada Goose Gallery’s approved inventory identifies Best Of Friends, currently priced at $85, and classifies it as Rare / Limited Edition / Lithograph / Numbered Edition, with Amish Art, Children, Folk Art, and Women among its subjects.

Story Behind the Artwork

There is very little narrative clutter in Best Of Friends. Two girls share one book while seated on a wooden window seat or bench. Their heads incline gently toward each other, and the book is positioned almost exactly between them.

That arrangement gives the title its significance. Friendship is not represented through a grand gesture or celebration, but through proximity and shared attention. The scene may remind collectors of a childhood friend, sister, classmate, or companion with whom books, secrets, school days, and ordinary afternoons were shared.

The exact relationship between the girls is not documented in the supplied materials. They can accurately be described as two young companions, while interpretations of sisterhood or friendship remain suggested by the title rather than established biography.

Symbols & Meaning

The shared book can represent reading, imagination, learning, and a common experience. Because both girls focus on the same pages, the book also becomes a visual bridge between them.

Their close physical placement may evoke companionship, trust, and the comfort of being with someone who shares an interest or moment.

The window introduces another possible reading. Windows have long been associated with looking outward, perspective, and possibility; combined with a book, it may suggest two different ways of discovering a larger world—through observation and through imagination.

These are widely recognized associations and editorial interpretations, not documented statements about Moss’s intentions.

Artistic Details

The tall window is the defining structural element of Best Of Friends. It rises far above the seated girls, dividing the background into rectangular panes and establishing a strong vertical rhythm.

Within that formal structure, the figures create a softer counterpoint. Their dresses spread gently across the bench, their shoulders angle toward one another, and the bright rose-pink book provides the strongest single color accent.

Moss uses large areas of pale paper and translucent color to keep the image airy. Soft green-blue sleeves and trim, cream dresses, warm brown wood, and faint branches beyond the window create enough detail to establish the setting without competing with the girls.

The unusual proportions are also important. With an image size of only 3-5/8 inches wide but 8-3/4 inches high, the print has a narrow vertical format that reinforces the towering-window effect.

Featured Master Collections

Primary Master Collection: Childhood & Storytelling

This is a direct, approved assignment. Canada Goose Gallery specifically names Best of Friends among the representative artworks selected for Childhood & Storytelling, whose subjects include children, books, imagination, learning, storytelling, and childhood memories.

Supporting Master Collections: None recommended.

The title strongly supports friendship, but Canada Goose Gallery’s current Master Collection framework does not include a Friendship Collection. The two female figures alone are not enough to require Women Who Built America, and their family relationship is not documented. Keeping the artwork within one strong Master Collection follows CGG’s standard of assigning only genuinely supported Collections.

Decorating Ideas

The unusually narrow vertical format makes Best Of Friends well suited to a reading nook, child’s bedroom, nursery, home library, study, hallway, or small wall between windows or bookshelves.

Its cream, aqua, pale green, pink, and natural wood tones work especially well with Cottage, Traditional, Nursery/Storybook, and collected interiors. The work could also be paired with one or two other vertically oriented Moss child-centered prints without requiring a large wall.

Gift Ideas

Best Of Friends is an especially natural gift for a lifelong friend, sister, childhood friend, reader, teacher, librarian, or someone who shares a meaningful history with another person.

It could mark a birthday, friendship anniversary, reunion, sister gift, graduation, or simply recognize a relationship built through years of shared experiences.

About the Edition

Best Of Friends was issued in 1998 as a rare, limited, numbered lithograph on paper.

• Numbered edition: 1,000
• Artist’s proofs: 25
• Image size: 8-3/4 × 3-5/8 inches
• Paper size: 12-1/4 × 7-1/8 inches
• Condition: New, mint condition
• Certificate of Authenticity: Included
• Current Canada Goose Gallery inventory price: $85
• Gallery classification: Rare / Limited Edition / Lithograph / Numbered Edition

🎨 Fun Fact:

Children’s literature was not always treated as a distinct world of books created specifically for young readers. The Library of Congress preserves children’s books published in the United States and England before 1924 that document the growth of a literature intended for children—from instructional books used to teach reading to stories written primarily for imagination and enjoyment. Its historical collection now includes classic works that generations of children continued to read long after publication. That evolution gives the shared book in Best Of Friends an interesting context: reading became not only something children were taught to do, but also something they could enjoy together as part of childhood itself.

🖼️ Collector’s Insight:

Best Of Friends stands apart from many Moss reading works because the subject is not simply reading—it is reading together as equals. The Evening Hour, Tales Retold, and Storytime Etching place younger listeners around an older reader, while Quiet Time and Favorite Escape isolate a single child with a book. Here, the two girls occupy the same level, share the same pages, and visually mirror one another beneath the towering window. That symmetry, combined with the narrow vertical format, vivid pink book, verified 1998 rare-edition classification, and approved placement in Childhood & Storytelling, gives the work a clearly defined place within a collection centered on friendship, childhood, or books.

Why Buy from Canada Goose Gallery

Canada Goose Gallery specializes in the art of P. Buckley Moss with attention to clear edition information, condition, authenticity, and collector education. Best Of Friends is documented in the gallery’s approved inventory as a rare, limited, numbered lithograph, with the current inventory record listing the work at $85.

Continue Exploring

Collectors who connect with the shared reading and companionship in Best Of Friends may especially enjoy:

• The Evening Hour where an adult and child share a book.
• Tales Retold where an adult and children share reading time.
• Storytime Etching expanding reading into a group storytelling experience
• Learning Through Love where books become part of a broader childhood learning scene.

For contrasting portraits of reading:

• Quiet Time focus on one child absorbed in a book.
• Favorite Escape focus on one adult enjoying a book.
• Spelling Lesson moves into formal classroom learning.

These works, along with Best Of Friends, are all verified representative titles within Canada Goose Gallery’s Childhood & Storytelling Master Collection.

 

“The best friendships are often built one quiet moment at a time.”