Armytage was included in a list of engravers whom Ruskin considered 'first rate' in a letter of 1841 ( Works, 2.xlii), and he engraved many plates for Ruskin's books. Ruskin's admiration of Armytage's work was lifelong. Writing of his engravers (of whom Armytage was one) in the Preface to Modern Painters V (1860), Ruskin expressed his 'sincere thanks for the patience, and my sincere admiration of the skill, with which they have helped me' ( Works, 7.8). In his Preface to the 1880 edition of The Seven Lamps of Architecture he described its frontispiece as 'an excellent piece of work by Mr. Armytage, to whose skill the best illustrations of Modern Painters owe not only their extreme delicacy but their permanence' ( Works, 8.16). The question of permanence was of considerable significance for Ruskin; see Davis, 'Job's Iron Pen'. (See also Ruskin, Turner, and engraving.)