AUTUMN 2023
A CATALOGUE of RECENT ACQUISITIONS
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Autumn 2023 A Catalogue of Recent Acquisitions From Friday 20th October 2023
Sanders of Oxford is pleased to present fifty of our most interesting recent acquisitions. Over the past few months we have been busy cataloguing a collection of fine and decorative prints spanning a diverse range of subjects, engravers, and prices. All works are available to purchase and will be on display in the gallery.
Sanders of Oxford. Antique Prints & Maps Salutation House 104 High Street Oxford OX1 4BW www.sandersofoxford.com - 01865 242590 - info@sandersofoxford.com Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm. Saturdays 10am - 6pm. Sundays 11am - 5pm.
Contents
Pg.
01-11: Mezzotints
06
12-22: Fine Prints
20
23-28: Portraits
34
29-35: Caricatures & Satires
42
36-40: General Interest
54
41-45: Topography
62
46-50: Oxford & Cambridge
68
Biographies: Artists, Printmakers, & Publishers
74
MEZZOTINTS
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01. [A Tyger] John Murphy after James Northcote Mezzotint Published May 1, 1790, by John & Joshia Boydell, Cheapside & at the Shakespeare Gallery, Pall Mall London Image 465 x 604 mm, Plate 480 x 605 mm framed A striking mezzotint of Northcote’s painting of a tiger. The tiger is depicted dramatically lit in its lair, with the head of a dead wolf in the shadows to the bottom right. John Murphy’s mastery of the mezzotint printmaking technique perfectly captures the texture of the prowling tigers’ fur and delicate whiskers. Le Blanc 14, ii/iii before title Condition: Good dark impression. Loss to margins, essentially trimmed to plate. Repaired 3 cm tears to top left and top centre. Creasing and rubbing to image. Framed in a handmade period style black and gilt frame. [52013] £3,250
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02. A German Print Merchant Robert Laurie after Johann Conrad Seekatz Mezzotint London, Printed for Rob.t Sayer, No.53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs, 1st. Feb.y 1772. Image 310 x 250 mm, Plate 350 x 252 mm, Sheet 385 x 263 mm unmounted A very scarce eighteenth century mezzotint of a print seller peddling his wears to a family outside their rural dwelling. The print merchant displays his print collection on a roller held around his neck, with further prints stored in a tube on his back. The potential customers in the foreground are inspecting a portrait of Frederick the Great, who proclaimed himself King of Prussia in the year this print was published. This print was originally issued as a pair to ‘A German ballad seller’, both of these mezzotints were copied from engravings published by Denis Charles Buldet and Christian von Mechel. ‘The Print Merchant’ derives from Antoine Louis Romanet’s engraving ‘Le marchand de village’ of 1766. The title reflects the fact that the painter Seekatz was German and that the scene was therefore assumed to be set in Germany. Lennox-Boyd i/i Condition: Sheet slightly toned, manuscript ‘140’ in top margin. Occasional small spots to bottom of image and slight thinning to shoulder of the print merchant. Light crease to top left of image. Old framing tape to top verso. [52287] £1,200
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03. Peace. La Paix. Plenty. L’Abondance. Richard Earlom after Robert Dighton Mezzotint with original hand colour Printed for & Sold by Carrington Bowles, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs. [1783, but c. 1790] Image 328 x 250 mm, Plate 352 x 250 mm each framed A pair of framed eighteenth century mezzotints depicting women in domestic settings representing Peace and Plenty. In Peace a richly dressed woman with large beribboned hat sits at a round table, facing right, her face on her left hand and looking out, her right hand on a two books which sit on an open pamphlet entitles “Preliminaries of PEACE.”, a glass of water and an olive branch are also on the table with two doves below in the floor. A classical landscape can be seen through the open door in the background right. In Plenty a fashionably dressed woman sits on a striped upholstered chair looking at the the viewer, her right foot on an upholstered footstool. She wears and elaborate cap with lace and ribbons, gloves, and an apron. On her lap is sheath of wheat and she hold pears in her hands and a basket of fruit containing pineapples, peaches, and grapes is on the floor next to her. In the background left through an open door lies a kitchen with game hanging from a metal frame, a pie with knife on a wooden stool, and an open fire with a kettle, a cooking pot, and meat roasting on a spit.
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This pair of prints were produced in the same year of the Treaty of Paris and the inclusion of the pamphlet “Preliminaries of Peace” is a direct direct reference to this and a celebration of the end of such a long conflict. Mezzotints of this type were a popular means for people to decorate their homes at this time. Listed in Carrington Bowles’ catalogue, 1790 108/478: “Peace and Plenty, 2 prints after Dighton, by Earlom” under the heading “Ladies in Fashionable Dresses from fine Paintings and Drawings”. Lennox-Boyd lists only one state of these prints with a publication line - “Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, *** N.o 69 in S.t Pauls Church Yard, London. / *** PEACE*** La PAIX. *** / 501 *** / Published as the Act directs [... date erased from print] and “Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, *** N.o 69 in S.t Pauls Church Yard, London. / *PLENTY. *** L’ ABONDANCE. *** / 502 *** / Published as the Act directs, 9 June 1783. Therefore, there was a first state issued in 1783 with a date but subsequent and thus, later printings, were issued without a date. Ex. Col. Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd Condition: Peace: Toning to sheet, pressed horizontal fold just above title. Strong original hand colour Plenty: Good clean impression with strong original hand colour. Framed in period frames. [52126] £1,400
04. Noon, Le Midi Charles Spooner after William Hogarth Mezzotint [Publish’d 23rd June 1740] Image 333 x 251 mm, Plate 359 x 253 mm framed A fine, contemporary, mezzotint copy of William Hogarth’s ‘Noon’ engraving from a series of four prints exploring London at different times of the day and year. Titled below image in English and French. The print depicts a scene set at midday, a group of wellgroomed French refugees file out of the Huguenot Chapel off the Charing Cross Road. The well turned out man, woman, and child are contrasted with the English group across the street. Here, before the Baptist’s Head pub, a black man fondles the breasts of a washerwoman. The boy before her has cracked the plate holding his dinner, spilling it onto the cobblestones, where an urchin girl picks through it. The street is physically divided in two by a gutter, bridged only by the carcass of a dead cat, and invites a clear contrast between the orderly, well-dressed French Huguenots and the unruly natives of the parish of St Giles in the Fields, the spire of which appears in the background.
The paintings upon which the original engravings are based were originally executed by Hogarth for the Vauxhall supperboxes. Although issued as a series, unlike Hogarth’s Progress types, the Four Times of the Day was intended to highlight contrasts and contradictions rather than a moral narrative, focussing instead on the comparison of class and character in various parts of London. As Paulson comments, in form the series take some inspiration from earlier allegorical series, the pastoral scenes replaced or subverted by scenes of the town, and with Hogarth’s characters acting as parodies of traditional allegorical figures. Paulson records Spooner’s set of four prints as “Publish’d 23rd June 1740”. Paulson p104, BM Satires 2366 (Morning), Lennox-Boyd i/i. Condition: Excellent clean impression. Framed in period style frame. Previously with Isac and Ede. [52318] £600
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05. Domestick Amusement. The Fair Seamstress. James Wilson after Johann Kaspar Heilman Mezzotint with hand colouring, Glass Print London Printed for Robt. Sayer Map & Printseller , at the Golden Buck near Serjeants Inn Fleet Street. [c. 1760-70] Image 285 x 240 mm, Sheet 330 x 220 mm framed An uncommon mezzotint glass print of a fashionably dressed woman seated turned three quarters to left sewing a piece of stripped fabric, with a small table with a sewing boxes and a ball of thread on it, and a curtain behind. Part of a larger set of prints on women’s domestic jobs. [52316] £550
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Three unusual hand coloured mezzotints, from a set of decorative allegorical prints representing the arts, more commonly issued as line engravings. The full series of six prints depicted scenes set within idealised classical ruins with figures partaking in each of the six arts. These particular impressions were published by Sayer and Overton from plates originally issued by Henry Overton I, c. 1740’s, with altered publication line. 06. Sculpture [Anonymous] Mezzotint with original hand colouring Printed for R. Sayer; in Fleet Street & H. Overton without New Gate. c. 1760 Image & Plate 250 x 352 mm, Sheet 280 x 385 mm framed This example illustrates the art of ‘Sculpture’ represented by five figures in a sculptural workshop setting, with two of the figures working on a pair of large classical style sculptures, whilst a third man as at a stone wheel, sharpening tools. Lennox-Boyd i/i Condition: Sheet toned. Holes to bottom margin. Framed in a period style frame with sand-gilt slip. “F.J. Harris” of Bath label on verso. [52278] £575
07. Astronomy [Anonymous] Mezzotint with original hand colouring Printed for R. Sayer; in Fleet Street & H. Overton without New Gate. c. 1760 Image & Plate 250 x 352 mm, Sheet 280 x 385 mm framed
08. Painting [Anonymous] Mezzotint with original hand colouring London Printed for H. Overton without Newgate. and R. Sayer; in Fleet Street c. 1760 Image & Plate 250 x 352 mm, Sheet 280 x 385 mm framed
This example illustrates the art of ‘Astronomy’ represented by seven figures with various astronomical equipment such as armillary spheres, celestial spheres and telescopes.
This example illustrates the art of ‘Painting’ represented by six figures amongst classical columns. A woman in the centre of the image is painting the portrait of another woman who is sitting on a seat with a small dog curled at her feet.
Lennox-Boyd ii/ii Condition: Sheet toned. Staining to margins. Framed in a period style frame with sand-gilt slip. “F.J. Harris” of Bath label on verso. [52280] £575
Lennox-Boyd i/i Condition: Sheet toned. Staining to margins, Very small wormholes to bottom right of image. Framed in a period style frame with sand-gilt slip. “F.J. Harris” of Bath label on verso. [52281] £575
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09. Scotland/ Wales [Anonymous] Mezzotint with hand colouring, Glass Print London Pubd. Octr. 10th , 1800, by P. Gally, No. 7, Beauchamp’s Street, Brook’s Market Image 265 x 365 mm framed A rare glass print depicting personifications of Scotland and Wales in its original frame. The figure of Scotland on the left stands with her right hand clutching Scottish Thistles, wearing a tartan robe, with a unicorn sat behind her. The figure of Wales on the right stands with her right arm outstretched holding the Prince of Wales’ feathers, with a goat under her other arm, clutching a leek in her hand. The scene is divided by the trunk of a tree with a rural background featuring a crude castle and a church spire in the distance.
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The leading eighteenth-century publishers hand painted many of their ‘drolls’, this rare example has been transferred onto glass (attached with a waterproof adhesive, then dissolving the paper so that only the ink remained on the glass), and then coloured in oils or watercolours in order to resemble a painting. Lennox-Boyd iii/iii Ex. Col.: Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd [52283] £500
10. Winter [Anonymous] Mezzotint with hand colouring, Glass Print London, Pub.d by C & T Stampa & Co, Kirby Street, Hatton Garden, May 1, 1805 Image 365 x 265 mm framed A rare glass print in a period style frame from a series of the four seasons. This print depicts the Winter: A scene showing a couple arm in arm watching figures skating, and falling, on an frozen pond. The woman is wearing a fur collared coat and tied bonnet, and is holding a large fur muff, the man is dressed in period finery, including a high collared coat and top hat. Behind the couple is a wooden structure and bench with ice skates. Condition: Overall browning of image. [52286] £450
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11. Britannia, Supporting the Protectors of Peace & Liberty. [Anonymous] Mezzotint with hand colouring, Glass Print Published Aug. 16, 1809 by P. Gally, & Beauchamp St., Brookes Market, & P. Stampa, 74 Leather Lane Holborn. Image 260 x 365 mm framed A very rare glass print in its original frame, published to celebrate The Treaty of Amiens, signed earlier the same year. The print depicts the helmeted female warrior Britannia sat upon a chariot with sun wheels, drawn by two lions, she holds busts of King George III and Napoleon Bonaparte. A cherub in the foreground holds aloft a Union Jack and the Tricolour flag of France along with a banner proclaiming “Peace Liberty and Concord”. A dove of peace features at the tip of the image with naval ships at dock in the background. The signing of the Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars, however the consequent peace lasted only one year and was the only period of general peace in Europe between 1793 and 1814.
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The same print was republished in 1814 by Gally to celebrate the Treaty of Paris which brought to an end to the Napoleonic Wars between France and the Sixth Coalition. It is therefore one of the only known examples of the same picture being issued for two purposes. The leading eighteenth-century publishers hand painted many of their ‘drolls’, this rare example has been transferred onto glass (attached with a waterproof adhesive, then dissolving the paper so that only the ink remained on the glass), and then coloured in oils or watercolours in order to resemble a painting. [52285] £650
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FINE PRINTS
12. [The Holy Family with the Three Hares] Albrecht Dürer Woodcut c.1497-8 [after 1600 impression] Image 390 x 280 mm, Sheet 520 x 350 mm unmounted One of Dürer’s earliest large-scale woodcuts, depicting the Holy Family in a walled garden. This is the first of Durer’s woodcuts to focus on the Madonna and Child, a subject that he returned to many times, particularly in etching. The Virgin, seated on a hayrick at centre and gazing serenely out at the viewer, holds the infant Christ in her lap. She wears a heavy robe, with her long curled hair mostly covered by a long veil. The child, naked but for a necklace from which hangs a coral teether, is occupied in rifling the pages of a book of scripture. To their left, Saint Joseph looks on, while a pair of angels hold aloft a crown, signifying Mary as Queen of Heaven. Symbols of Mary’s chastity are dotted throughout the scene, from the cloistered setting of the walled garden to the three hares that gambol prominently at her feet. The hare as a symbol of chastity, fertility, and virgin birth is an old one, dating back to Celtic and Germanic pre-Christian beliefs that hares were capable of parthenogenesis. As well as appealing to artistic symmetry and arithmancy, the three hares also stand as a reference to the Trinity. Beyond the safety of the garden’s boundary walls, a mountainous landscape is shown, with a small village perched on the foothills by the banks of a wooded lake. Hollstein 212, Meder 212 I of I Condition: Printed on laid paper. Very worn block. Dirt build-up and foxing to sheet, particularly to margins. Pressed horizontal crease to sheet. Chips, creases, and folds to margins. [52269] £1,800
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13. [History] Robert Joseph Hixon after Giovanni Battista Cipriani Stipple London Engraved & Pubd. as the Act directs Jany. 1806 by R. Hixon. No. 355, Strand. Image 255 x 193 mm, Sheet 337 x 258 mm unmounted A print depicting an allegorical representation of history. A winged angel-like figure is seen looking off to the right of the scene, they are leaning on a ledge grasping a quill in their right hand with their left resting on a piece of parchment. They have a jewelled head band on, with curls falling around their face and Condition: Title ‘History’ faintly printed in text area of sheet. Light toning to sheet. Minor creasing to sheet. [52315] £175
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14. Painting Robert Joseph Hixon after Giovanni Battista Cipriani Stipple London Engraved & Pubd. as the Act directs Jany. 1806 by R. Hixon. No. 355, Strand. Image 255 x 193 mm, Sheet 372 x 305 mm unmounted A print depicting a female representation of painting. She is seen leaning on a canvas, looking over her left shoulder at the viewer. Her shoulder is exposed, with her covered in loose fitting drapery over her head and body. She is holding a fine paint brush in her right hand, with her left leaning on the canvas under her chin. Condition: Crease to top left corner. Tears and creasing to sheet edges. Foxing and toning to sheet, mostly on edges. [52313] £175
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15. Harmony Charles Albert Waltner after Sir Frank Dicksee Etching [Thomas Agnew 6th December 1879] Image 405 x 235 mm, Plate 517 x 315 mm, Sheet 610 x 417 mm mounted One of Dicksee’s most popular works, Harmony depicts a young man gazing adoringly at a young woman playing the organ. The model for the woman was Hilda Spencer, an art student at Queens College, Harley Street, where Dicksee taught. During his studentship at the Royal Academy Schools, Dicksee joined the Langham Sketching Club. Encouraged one evening by the sketch he had produced on the theme of music, Dicksee worked on an oil painting of the same composition. In 1877, when still only twenty four years of age, the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy with the title Harmony. The medieval setting of the painting clearly reflects the influence of Pre-Raphaelite art and design. The furniture in particular, is reminiscent of the pieces that were produced at the time by William Morris. Facsimile artist and print maker signatures in plate. Plate declared to the Printseller’s Association December 6th, 1879, with their blind stamp lower left. The painting upon which this etching is based is now in the Tate collection. Condition: Even time toning to printed area. Professionally repaired pin holes to area below image. [52217] £750
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16. Dni.. Maioris sive Pretoris Londinensis Vxoris hab: after Wenceslaus Hollar Etching c. 1645 Image 85 x 50 mm, Plate 95 x 52 mm, Sheet 147 x 89 mm unmounted A print after Hollar in reverse that derives from an obscure series of Wenceslaus Hollar’s entitled the ‘Aula Veneris’. The ‘Aula Veneris’, or the ‘Halls of Venus’, was a miniature series of costume prints which is thought to have formed an adjunct to Hollar’s ‘Theatrum Mulierum’, published in London, 1643. Evidence suggests that nine issues of the Theatrum, and four issues of the Aula were circulated in dates ranging from 1643 until 1816. Though both the motive for the composition, and the details of the publication are unclear, it is supposed that Hollar was inspired by the second edition of Jost Amman’s ‘Gynaeceum, siue Theatrum Mulierum’, which was reissued in Baden-Württemberg in 1639. Amman’s preface to this edition stated that his woodcuts of regional dress were meant to provide those that could not travel with a view of regional costume and a tacit indication of foreign character. Hollar’s augmentation of Amman’s title suggests that he had a similar rational in mind when he published the first 48 plates of his ‘Theatrum.’ Richard Pennington writes that the plates of the ‘Aula Veneris’ were intended for a Pars Secunda in England, but were then carried by Hollar to Antwerp when he fled the country, and were subsequently distributed to a contintental audience. This theory is given credence by the fact that 37 of the Aula etchings have had a German sub-title added to them. Whatever the context, Hollar’s etchings provide a masterful view of contemporary fashion completed by one of the centuries finest printmakers. Pennington 1892 ii/ii but a copy in reverse after Hollar Condition: Binding holes in right margin. [52272] £70
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17. [Plate 21. English Lady with a muff] Wenceslaus Hollar Etching Hollar fecit 1640 Image 125 x 72 mm, Plate 134 x 72 mm, Sheet 258 x 200 mm unmounted Plate 21. from Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus. The print shows a full length depiction of a lady turned slightly to the right, wearing a dark wide brimmed hat, shoulder wrap, dark dress, and a muff. Number 21 in plate. Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus or The Severall Habits of English Women from the Nobility to the country Woman, as they are in these times is an illustrated costume series produced by Wenceslaus Hollar in 1640. The illustrations depict the diversity of English women’s apparel at that time, covering all aspects of society from the country woman to the noblewoman. Many of the illustrations were based on Hollar’s eyewitness observations during his time in the Earl of Arundel’s, his main patron, court making them an accurate source of fashion history. Pennington 1798 ii/iii, New Hollstein (German) 314, ii/iii (Hollar) Condition: Diagonal crease in left margin, binding holes on top edges not affecting the image or plate [52302] £200
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Five plates from Hollar’s ‘Hall of Venus’ Aula Veneris sive Varietas Foeminini Sexus diversarum Europa or The Variety and Differences of the Female habits of the nations of Europe was an illustrated costume series produced by Wenceslaus Hollar during the mid to late 1640’s. The series illustrates the various fashions of women from all over Europe and even some parts of Northern Africa. They cover all aspects of society from the country woman to the noblewoman from each of the nations. It is not known how many etchings were originally produced for the series, with no numbering and multiple states being produced in various languages including English, German, and Dutch.
18. Mulier Nobilis aut Generosa Anglica, Noble Gentle Woman of England Wenceslaus Hollar Etching W. Hollar fecit 1643 Image 83 x 57 mm, Plate 93 x 60 mm, Sheet 100 x 68 mm unmounted English title to the left of image: Noble Gentle Woman of England A plate from Wenceslaus Hollar’s Aula Veneris. The print shows a full length depiction of a lady in profile to the left. Her hair is half up, secured in a plaited bun. In her right hand she holds a feathered fan to her chest, her left hand holding up the dark upper skirt of her dress, showing her light, scalloped edged under skirt. Pennington 1886 ii/iii (Noble Gentle Woman/ of England added), New Hollstein (German) 519 ii/iii, (Hollar) Condition: Light inking to bottom left of image and inscription. [52294] £90
19. Mulier Generosa Anglica, English Gentlewoman Wenceslaus Hollar Etching W. Hollar fecit 1643 Image 83 x 57 mm, Plate 95 x 65 mm, Sheet 100 x 68 mm unmounted
20. Nobilis Mulier Anglicana, Noble Woman of England Wenceslaus Hollar Etching W Hollar inu et fecit c.1645 Image 83 x 58 mm,Plate 98 x 65 mm, Sheet 147 x 89 mm unmounted
English title to left of image: English:Gentle: woman A plate from Wenceslaus Hollar’s Aula Veneris. The print shows a full length depiction of a lady in profile to the right. She wears a dark hood tied under her chin, and lace-edge shoulder cape, a muff on her left arm, as she holds her dark overskirt in her right hand. . English title to the top left of image: English:Gentle: woman
English title to left of image: Noble woman of England. A plate from Wenceslaus Hollar’s Aula Veneris. The print shows a full length depiction of a lady turned slightly to the right, head turned to face the viewer. Her hair is half up, with half down, wavy and falling to the sides. Her left hand is outstretched with her right holding a small feather fan to her hip.
Pennington 1888 iii/iv (English:Gentle: woman added), New Hollstein (German) 519 ii/iii (Hollar) Condition: Slightly weak impression, small loss to right margin not affecting the image or plate. [52295] £120
Pennington 1885 ii/iii (Noble woman of/ England added), New Hollstein (German) 518 ii/iii (Hollar) Condition:Slightly worn impression. [52296] £100
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21. Mulier Argentinensis Wenceslaus Hollar Etching W. Hollar inu et fec 1642 Image 85 x 61 mm, Plate 93 x 62 mm, Sheet 147 x 87 mm unmounted A plate from Wenceslaus Hollar’s Aula Veneris depicting a woman from Strasbourg. She stands full length in profile to left wearing a fur cap, a ruff from which two long ribbons hang, a fur cap, dark dress with a lighter coloured under skirt, and a white apron. Pennington 1853 only state, New Hollstein (German) 576 only state (Hollar) Condition: Good impression, inscribed date worn. [52300] £100
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22. Mercatoris Norimbergensis, Vxor, Wenceslaus Hollar Etching W. Hollar fecit 1643 Image 84 x 61 mm, Plate 90 x 61 mm, Sheet 147 x 87 mm unmounted A plate from Wenceslaus Hollar’s Aula Veneris depicting a Merchant’s woman from Nuremberg. She stands diagonally to left and is wearing a dark wide brimmed hat wwith a light band over a hair net over her hair, a white ruff, a dark cape with short fur collar, a light colour pleated skirt with horizontal hemms, and white apron. Pennington 1819 only state, New Hollstein (German) 492, i/ii (Hollar) Condition:Slightly worn impression. Binding holes in right margin outside of the plate. [52309] £90
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PORTRAITS
23. Johannes Radcliffe M.D. George Vertue after Sir Godfrey Kneller Copper engraving G. Kneller Baront. pinxit 1710. G. Vertue Sculp. 1719 [1757] Image 365 x 265 mm, Plate 370 x 275 mm, Sheet 465 x 290 mm unmounted An unusual 1757 restrike of Vertue’s engraved portrait of the celebrated physician and Oxford donor John Radcliffe, issued by George Edwards for the Royal College of Physicians. The portrait, after the oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, shows Radcliffe three-quarter length, seated to the right with his right arm resting on a sidetable, upon which sits a hat with folded brim and a letter bearing his name. He wears a long wig, surcoat, and cravat, and his left hand is gloved, holding his other glove to the handle of his sword. The inscription space features the Arms of Radcliffe at centre, above an inscription reading: ‘Obiit 1. Nov. MDCCXIV Aetat 65.’ This particular issue of Vertue’s engraving features a secondary inscription plate appended below, which reads: ‘Viro Dignissimo Thomae Reeve M.D. Praesidi Eximio Sociisque ornatissimis &c. Collegii Regalis medicorum Londinensium hanc Tabulam D.D.D. G. Edwards. The Original Picture from which this Plate is ingraved was the Property of the late R. Mead M.D. the Plate was the Property of the late Sr. Hans Sloane Bart. Now first published May 1st 1757 according to Act of Parliament.’ The inscription gives the restrike an impressive pedigree, associating it with the leading figures of the English medical world in the mid eighteenth century. The painting itself was presumably undertaken by Kneller for John Radcliffe himself, though its passing into Mead’s ownership is unsurprising, as after Radcliffe’s death, Richard Mead was recognised as London’s preeminent physician. According to the inscription, the engraved plate was in the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, himself a member of the College and patron of George Edwards, whom the former had recommended to the College for the role of Beadle, a position Edwards applied himself to with relish, at the same time also arranging for himself to be considered the College’s librarian. Thomas Reeve, to whom the restruck plate is dedicated, was at the time of printing the President of the Royal College of Physicians.
George Edwards (1694-1773) was, like Catesby, one of the pioneers of natural history documentation, and is known as the “Father of British Ornithology.” His marvellous A Natural History of Birds (London: 1743-51) was produced almost single-handedly. Edwards not only wrote the text for the book but also made the drawings, etched the plates, and hand coloured the prints to be bound in each volume. Edwards was born at Stratford, Essex. In his early years he travelled extensively through mainland Europe, studying natural history, and gained some reputation for his coloured drawings of animals, especially birds. In 1733, on the recommendation of Sir Hans Sloane, he was appointed librarian to the Royal College of Physicians in London. O’Donohue 1 (unrecorded variant) Condition: Minor creasing to corners of sheet. [52271] £325
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24. Charlotte Cushman Thomas Herbert Maguire Lithograph T. H. Maguire 1846. Image 225 x 215 mm, Sheet 287 x 230 mm unmounted A seated portrait of prominent American actress Charlotte Cushman. Cushman is seen seated, turned slightly to her right and looking directly at the viewer. Her right hand is resting on the arm of the chair, with her left holding an open tie at her chest. She is wearing a simple dress, her hair parted at the centre and tied back. A facsimile signature is below the portrait. Charlotte Saunders Cushman (1816 - 1876) was an American stage actress. Cushman was known for her ability to play both male and female roles and for her tumultuous private life. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Cushman made her theatrical debut in 1835, after her Father died leaving her family financially ruined. Cushman and her sister, Susan, frequently acted together, famously playing Romeo and Juliet. Cushman was openly queer and had a string of female partners including the artist Rosalie Sully, the writer Anne Hampton Brewster, and actress and writer Matilda Hays. Hays and Cushman were publicly known as a couple and became known for dressing alike. Cushman retired from acting and took up residence with Hays in Rome by 1852. They lived in an American expatriate community made up of queer artists and writers. Cushman returned to the US in the 1860’s where she came out of retirement for several farewell performances, her last being the role of Lady Macbeth at the Globe Theatre in Boston in 1875. Cushman died of pneumonia in 1876. In 1915 she was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans and sculptor Emma Stebbins’, who she was romantically linked with, statue The Angel of the Waters, above the fountain in Central Park’s Bethesda Terrace, is said to be inspired by Cushman. Condition: Staining to corners from glue on verso. Some surface marks. Trimmed. [52345] £175
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25. Marquis de la Fayette B. le Clair after L. Barre Stipple London. Pubd. Feby. 3. 1791 by Molteno, Colnaghi, & Co. No. 132 Pall Mall. Image 103 x 80 mm, Plate 230 x 170 mm, Sheet 250 x 187 mm unmounted An oval portrait of Marquis de Lafayette, the prominent French aristocrat and key figure in the American Revolution. The portrait shows Lafayette in military uniform, possibly of the Continental Army. He is turned slightly to the right, and looking off to the left of the image.
Lafayette helped write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen with Thomas Jefferson’s assistance after the National Constituent Assembly was formed during the first stages of the French Revolution. He also advocated the end of slavery, in keeping with the philosophy of natural rights.
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette known in the US as ‘Lafayette’ (1757 – 1834), was a French aristocrat and military figure who joined the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War.
After the storming of the Bastille in 1789, he was appointed commander of France’s National Guard. During the French ‘July Revolution’ of 1830, he declined an offer to become the French dictator. He is sometimes known as “The Hero of the Two Worlds” for his accomplishments in the service of both France and the United States.
Born into a wealthy French family, La Fayette travelled to the New World to join the American Revolution, being made a major general at the age of 19. He served at many key battles throughout the war and played an important role at the decisive Siege of Yorktown. He lobbied for an increase in French support for the revolutionary cause and commanded American and French forces successfully throughout the war.
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Condition: Tipped to album page. Vertical crease to left of centre of sheet. Some creasing to corners. Some slight surface dirt. [52304] £125
26. Ebenezer Sibly, Born January 30: 11 Hor 23 m A.M 1751 James Roberts Copper engraving Roberts Ad viv. invt. et sc. [London, c.1790] Image 192 x 162 mm, Sheet 195 x 165 mm unmounted The autobiographical horoscope of the astrologer, physician, and esoteric philosopher, Ebenezer Sibly, from the second volume of his ‘An Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology.’ The portrait shows Sibly half length, in profile to the left, seated in his study and surrounded by various scientific and astrological instruments, including an armillary sphere, a sextant, and an open book containing greek letters and alchemical symbols. He wears a dark waistcoat and coat, and a periwig, and in his left hand, clasps a horoscope of the type found in his book, this particular example for a ‘Miss Urania Sibly, Born March 8th, 2 H 53 AM 1782,’ presumably his own daughter, appropriately named for the classical muse of astrology and astronomy.
The large oval border contains Sibly’s horoscope, with zodiacal and other relevant astrological notations given with their corresponding symbols. Sibly’s own portrait and horoscope was the first in a series presented in the book, which included notable historical figures including Jesus Christ, Martin Luther, Henry VIII, Cicero, and William Lilly. Condition: Trimmed to image, within platemark. Large horizontal crease through bottom half of image. Minor time toning and foxing to sheet. Blank on verso. [52301] £125
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27. Capt:n Tho,,s Forrest [Captain Thomas Forrest] William Sharp after John Keyse Sherwin Copper engraving Published by the Author as the Act directs, Jany.30th 1779 Image 255 x 182 mm, Sheet 268 x 205 mm unmounted Inscribed below sitters name and crest : “Ætat 50 Mid.n in the Navy in 1745” An engraved portrait of Captain Thomas Forrest (c. 1729 – c. 1802), a navigator for the British East India Company. Forrest is depicted seated at a table pointing to a chart laid out in front of him, two garay boats can be seen at sea in the background, one of which is likely to be ‘Tartar’ the garay boat commissioned by Forrest in his 1774 expedition to New
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Guinea. This print formed the frontis piece to Forrest’s “A Voyage To New Guinea, And The Moluccas, From Balambangan: Including An Account of Magiindano, Sooloo, And Other Islands...” published in 1779. O’Donoghue 1 Condition: Trimmed just below crest and publication line. Surface abrasion to right margin and inscription space, not affecting image or inscription. [52288] £100
28. Capt.n Franklin. R.N. F.R.S. Frederick Christian Lewis after George Robert Lewis Lithograph Published for G. Lewis, by Hurst & Pobinson. Cheapside . Jan.y. 1. 1824 Image 200 x 170 mm, Sheet 320 x 268 mm unmounted Inscribed below image: ‘Drawn by G. R. Lewis’. ‘Eng.d by F.C. Lewis, Southampton Row, Paddington’ / ‘Eng.r to H.R.H. the Pr. Leopold & the H.R.H. the late Prinn.s Charlotte’, and below title: ‘Commander of the Land Arctic Expedition with Fort Enterprise in the back ground.’ A portrait of a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786 – 1847), sat dressed in naval uniform with epaulettes on his shoulders. He holds a compass in his right hand and a theodolite stands on a tripod to his left. In the background is a Northwest Territories landscape including a depiction of Fort Enterprise. Sir John Franklin (1786 – 1847) served in the Napoleonic wars and in the United States. Franklin led an overland expedition into the Canadian Arctic in 1819 in an attempt to survey and chart the area from Hudson Bay to the north coast of Canada, eastwards from the mouth of the Coppermine River, followed by a journey through the islands of the Arctic Archipelago in 1825.
His final expedition in 1845 was an attempt to traverse the Northwest Passage, this resulted in Franklin’s ships becoming icebound off King William Island, where he died in 1847. This print was published off the back of the disastrous Coppermine expedition of 1819 – 1822, in which he lost 11 of the 20 men in his party to starvation, murder, and possibly cannibalism. Despite this, in Britain he was regarded as a hero for the show of courage in extreme adversity. The expedition captured the public imagination, and in reference to a desperate measure he took while starving, he became known as “the man who ate his boots”. O’Donoghue 2 Condition: Printed on india laid paper. Trimmed on india laid on sides [52289] £200
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CARICATURES & SATIRES
29. Le Diable-Boiteux,_or_The Devil upon Two Sticks, conveying John Bull to the Land of Promise James Gillray Etching with hand colouring Js. Gillray inv. & fec. Publish’d Febr. 8th. 1806 by H. Humphrey_27 St. James’s Street, London. Image 340 x 240 mm, Plate 350 x 245 mm, Sheet 360 x 270 mm unmounted Gillray’s satirical presaging of events following the death of the Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, issued just days before the official formation of the Ministry of All the Talents. At centre, Charles James Fox, Whiggish stateman and leading antagonist of both Pitt and King George III, is depicted in the guise of Satan carrying a hapless John Bull, representative of the British citizenry, to a new and glorious future. Fox, corpulent, cloven hooved, and winged with a pair of feathery pinions which carry the mocking labels of ‘Honesty’ and ‘Humility,’ looks over his right shoulder, as the terrified John Bull clutches at a cape emblazoned with the assumed credo of this new Ministry: ‘Loyalty, Independence, & Public Good.’ Fox is propped up upon a pair of crutches under each arm, bearing the faces of Lord Sidmouth, and William Grenville. The smirking Fox, wearing a revolutionary’s liberty cap decorated with a tricolor cockade and the three ostrich plumes of the Prince of Wales - a reference to his assumed twin political allegiances - seeks to reassure Bull: ‘Come along Johnny!_take fast hold of my Cloak, & I’ll bring you to the Land of Milk & Honey!!!’ The poor cit, his wig and tricorn falling as he struggles to keep his grasp, responds: ‘_O Yes, I will try to hold fast!_but I’m damnably afraid that your Cloak may slip off before we get there, & I may chance to break my Neck!’ The ‘Land of Milk and Honey’ is in fact Carlton House, the private residence of the Prince, around whom had gathered what was effectively an alternative parliament, in opposition to the Pittite Tories and his father the King. The House sits upon a cloud, with the sun of a ‘New Constitution’ rising behind. On the billows before the House, the virtues of Liberty, Chastity, and Temperance are exhibited in turn by the Prince gaming with Sheridan, fondling Mrs Fitzherbert on a couch, and wassailing at a drinkers table. Below them all, plumes of black smoke rise from London, represented by the dome of St Paul’s and the gates of St James’.
Historically, Gillray’s caricature is an important one, having been issued by Hannah Humphrey just days before William Grenville’s appointment as Prime Minister on the 11th of February. William Pitt had died on the 23rd of January, his death likely hastened by the stress of the ongoing war with Napoleon. Grenville’s new Ministry, a government of national unity, involved the leading politicians from all of the largest factions of parliament with the exception of the staunchest Pittites. Grenville himself, as well as Prime Minister, became the First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Lords, Sidmouth was made Lord Privy Seal and later President of the Council, while Fox, who had stood in opposition for twenty two years, was made Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in the hope that his reputation as being sympathetic to the French Revolutionary cause might assist in brokering a peace. The Ministry was in this regard a failure, and broke up barely a year later, though is chiefly remembered for its success in bringing about the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807. BM Satires 10525 Condition: Very good impression. Trimmed to outside plate mark and tipped to old album sheet. Minor creasing to top and bottom corners at left of sheet. [52274] £1,500
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30. Pandora opening her Box! James Gillray Etching with hand colouring Js. Gillray invt. & fect. Published Feby. 22. 1809 by H. Humphrey 27 St. James’s Street Image 350 x 255 mm, Plate 360 x 260 mm, Sheet 370 x 270 mm unmounted Mrs Clarke’s appearance in the House of Commons to testify against the Duke of York, lampooned by Gillray using the metaphor of Pandora loosing evils upon mankind. Mrs Clarke, dressed in a long dress, and wearing a long veiled hat, stands at the bar of the Commons, holding up a vessel labelled ‘Opposition Stink Box.’ The lid of the box, the ‘Cover of Infamy’, has been removed, letting loose a foul smelling cloud of acrid smoke and flame, which obscures the Royal Arms above the Speakers chair. A nest of serpents springs from the box, each one labelled with the evils of Clarke and the Opposition: Calumny, Lies, Ingratitude, Revenge, Deceit, Avarice, Perjury, Forgery. The assembled MPs of the Government recoil from the stench, holding their noses, while the Opposition gleefully watch the proceedings, the backbenchers whooping and waving their hats. In the foreground, an ornate commode is labelled ‘Broad Bottom Reservoir,’ revealing Pandora’s ‘box’ to be a chamber pot. Around the commode, stacks of papers seek to discredit Mrs Clarke. These include forgeries of various kinds, love letters from various enemies of the Duke, a ‘Scheme to destroy the House of Brunswick,’ and documents for the sale of military commissions. Mrs Clarke’s cheek has also been given a mouche, to further suggest her disreputable character and call her evidence into question. Mary Anne Clarke (1776-1852) was the mistress of Prince Frederick, the second son of King George III. At the time of their meeting, the Duke of York was already Commander in Chief of the British Army, and although the Prince furnished a house in Gloucester Place for Clarke, the funds available to him were insufficient for their lifestyle.
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In 1809 it emerged that Mrs Clarke had been selling military commissions with the knowledge of the Prince. The news caused a scandal, and the Duke attempted to distance himself from Clarke. The scandal was exacerbated by Clarke’s testimony in the House of Commons, at which time she made public various love letters and other documents relating to her affair with the Duke, and he was left with no option but to resign. BM Satires 11219 Condition: A good impression, trimmed to outside plate mark. Minor creasing and time toning to edges of sheet. Old repaired tears to bottom margin, not affecting plate. Old adhesive tape to verso. [52275] £1,000
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31. Lilliputian-Substitutes, Equiping for Public Service James Gillray Etching with hand colouring Js. Gillray fect. & delt. Publish’d May 28th 1801 by H. Humphrey No. 27 St James’s Street. Image 238 x 350 mm Plate 247 x 356 mm Sheet 319 x 440 mm unmounted Gillray’s scathing opinion of the leading figures of the newly ascendent Addington ministry following the resignation of the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger. Each of the central figures is shown as a diminutive caricature of his predecessor, a pointed commentary on the prevailing sentiment of the time that Addington and his Cabinet members were generally a lacklustre shadow of Pitt’s Government. Gillray has added helpful crib notes to the bottom of the scene to ensure the comparison cannot be misconstrued by the viewer. From left to right, the central figures are as follows: Lord Loughborough’s comedically large wig is worn by the new Chancellor, Lord Eldon, who sings absentmindedly ‘O such a Day as This, so renown’d, so victorious, Such a Day as This, was never seen!’ while dandling his feet from the side of the Woolsack, kicking the ‘Treasury Bench’. Upon the Bench, holding the principal position in the scene, stands Addington himself, ridiculous in Pitt’s cocked hat and blue and red Windsor uniform, both of which swamp his meagre frame. His entire body is enclosed within ‘Mr Pitt’s Jack-Boot’ as he exclaims unashamedly ‘Well! to be sure these here Cloaths do fit me to a inch!_& now that I’ve got upon this Bench, I think I may pass muster for a fine tall Fellow, & do as well for a Corporal as my old Master, Billy, himself!!!_’ Beside him, in a dejected mood, stands Hawkesbury, the new Foreign Secretary, inheriting the ill-fitting breeches of Pitt’s cousin Grenville, who had resigned alongside Pitt over the King’s refusal to back Catholic Emancipation. He cries out ‘Mercy upon me!_what a Deficiency is here!!! ah poor Hawkee!_ what will be the consequence, if these d_d Breeches should fall off in thy “March to Paris,” & thou should be found out a SansCulotte?’ In the background between the two, the new War Secretary, Charles York, sulks beneath a huge cap and feather previously belonging to Windham.
On the right of the scene, the stout Lord Hobart bears the bloody broadsword and Scots cap of Dundas, his worried expression betraying his fear, despite his best attempts to reassure himself and his colleagues with a stirring speech: ‘Ay! Ay! leave Us to settle them all! here’s my little Andrew Ferrara!!!_ was it not Us that tip’d ‘em the broadside in the Baltic?_was it not Us that gave ye Crocodiles a breakfast in Egypt?_I’m a Rogue if it is not Us that is to save little England from being swallow’d up in the Red Sea!!!’ The final contribution to the conversation comes from the corpulent and gouty Lord Glenbervie, the new Paymaster General, who struggles because of his affliction to don the slippers of his predecessor Canning: ‘ah Damn his narrow Pumps! I shall never be able to bear them long on my Corns!_zounds! are these shoes fit for a Man in present-pay Free Quarters?’ The final pair of figures, the ‘Treasury Ink Stands,’ are the new Secretaries of the Treasury, John Hiley Addington and Nicholas Vansittart, who, like the Prime Minister, are swamped by the Windsor coats of their forebears, Rose and Long. BM Satires 9722 Condition: Good impression with minor creasing and time toning to edges of sheet. Old adhesive marks from album sheet to verso. [52276] £2,150
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32. Uncorking Old Sherry James Gillray Etching with hand colouring Js. Gillray inv. & fect. Published March 10th 1805 by H. Humphrey St. James’s Street London. Image 355 x 245 mm, Plate 360 x 255 mm, Sheet 490 x 305 mm unmounted A lampoon of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s speeches in the Commons, following Pitt’s portrayal of Sheridan in response to the latter’s speech against Pitt’s General Defence Bill. Pitt, in the attitude of a waiter, stands before the Opposition benches. He wears a windsor coat and bagged wig, and, with nose upturned, pulls the cork from a bottle he clasps between his knees. The bottle of ‘Old Sherry’ contains the malevolent head of Sheridan. From the uncorked bottle bursts a shower of Sheridan’s perceived rhetorical devices: Egotism, Stale Jokes, Fibs Fibs Fibs!, Low Scurrilities, Dramatic Ravings, Invectives, Loyal Boastings, Stolen Jests, Lame Puns, Groans of Disappointment, Old Puns, Damn’d Fibs, Abuse, Growlings, and Bouncings. On the floor by Pitt’s shoes, the last drops of ‘Medicinal Wine’ drain from a bottle containing the head of the former Prime Minister Sidmouth, recently relegated to the House of Lords following Pitt’s return. On the front bench of the Opposition, ‘A Glass of All Sorts’ contains Tierney’s head, ‘True French Wine’ is Pitt’s nemesis Fox, Windham is ‘Brandy and Water,’ and Grey is ‘Goosberry Wine.’ Behind them, ‘Spruce Beer’ is Erskine, Burdett is ‘Brentford Ale,’ and other indiscernible bottles are labelled ‘Mum’, ‘Elder Wine,’ and ‘Whitbread’s Small Beer.’ Sheridan was evidently amused by Gillray’s representation, as he reportedly bought six copies of the etching from Hannah Humphrey. Below the image, a lengthy inscription loosely cribs Pitt’s rebuttal to Sheridan’s attempt to repeal the Additional Forces Bill: ‘_the honble. Gentm. tho’ he does not very often address the House, yet when he does, he always thinks proper to pay off all arrears, & like a Bottle just uncork’d bursts all at once into an explosion of Froth & Air_then, whatever might for a length of time lie lurking & corked up in his mind, whatever he thinks of himself or hears in conversation, whatever he takes many days or weeks to sleep upon, the whole commonplace book of the interval is sure to burst out at once, stored with studied jokes, sarcasms, arguments, invectives, & every thing else, which, his mind or memory are capable of embracing whether they have any relation of not to the subject under discussion._ See Mr. P_tts speech on ye Genl. Defence Bill, March 6th 1805.’ BM Satires 10375 Condition: Uniform time toning to sheet from old mount, with associated burn to margins outside platemark. Minor creasing and chips to edges of sheet. Old adhesive stain to top margin on verso. [52290] £2,450
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33. Bat-Catching James Gillray Etching with hand colouring Js. Gillray inv & fect. [Pubd. Jany. 19th 1803 by J. Gillray 27. St. James’s Street.] Image 245 x 330 mm, Sheet 250 x 350 mm unmounted A satire in response to rumours that Tierney, Sheridan, and Grey were keen for positions in Addington’s ministry. Addington, the Prime Minister, and Lord Hawkesbury the Foreign Secretary, have gone out by night to engage in some bat catching, with the darkened door of their ‘Granary’ representing the Treasury. Addington, crouched low over a sack of gold coins labelled ‘Sterling British Corn,’ holds in one hand a cocked hat decorated with the tricolor filled with papers of sinecures, annuities, pensions, and posts, and in the other a bright lantern with which he attracts and blinds his quarry. Hawkesbury looms above with a large net, ready to bag the hapless bats as they rush towards the bait. The three bats have the heads of the three men, Tierney foremost, Grey behind, and Sheridan below.
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The method employed by the Ministers is described by Gillray in the inscription space, drawing upon the work of the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon: ‘Bat-Catching, (says Buffon) does not require much art, for, flying always in the Night, they are easily attracted by a Dark Lanthorn, & being always hungry, may be easily caught, by a few Cheese Parings, or Candle Ends;_they are so rapacious, that if they once get into the Granary, they never cease devouring, while there is any thing left.”_vide, Buffon’s Nat: His. Article, Birds of Night_’ BM Satires 9964 Condition: Good impression, trimmed within platemark, with loss of top publication line, and remargined with old album sheet. Inscription in crayon to verso ‘8/15/46 Property of A.K.Darling-McNab, Box 436 Gloucester Massachusetts U.S.A.’ [52277] £1,200
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34. The Times, Taken from an Original Character which appear’d at the Masquerade at Lincoln Decr. the 21st. 1769 [T. Marks] Copper engraving [Publish’d as the Act directs by T. Marks on the pav’d Stones St. Martins Lane] Price 1s. 0d. [c.1770] Image 345 x 260 mm, Plate 350 x 270 mm, Sheet 415 x 300 mm unmounted An unusual satire of the political situation of Great Britain at the close of 1769, presented in the form of a costume purportedly worn at a Masquerade in Lincoln held on the 21st of December. An advertisement published about the print in ‘The Public Advertiser’ on the 27th of January 1770, identifies the figure as one ‘Capt. W__s’ though this may well be a conceit by the printmaker, himself the unidentified and possibly pseudonymous ‘T. Marks,’ who gives his address, comedically and improbably, as ‘on the pav’d Stones’ of St Martin’s Lane. The current example lacks the imprimatur of the British Museum example, while another impression in the Library of Congress attributes it to the publisher William Holland (fl.1782-1817). Whether the print is representative of a real costume or not is irrelevant to the satire’s ingenious presentation of the political events of the day. The figure, full length, is split down the middle, with one half representing the Court Party of the Earl of Bute, and the other half the Opposition, most closely personified by John Wilkes and his supporters. Wilkes, a radical, had been ejected from Parliament thrice between February and April 1769 and much of the year’s politics had revolved around his increasing antagonism towards Bute. Consequently, the figure’s right side bears the features of Bute, the left side the boss-eye of Wilkes. The rest of the figure’s costume is likewise divided in two. His stockings show the right side to be ‘A supporter of the Crown’ and his left ‘A Supporter of the Constitution.’ The former position is one of ‘Passive Obedience, Non-Resistance’ while the latter demands ‘No General Warrants, No American Stamp Act.’ The upturned brim of his hat bears a pair of inscriptions: ‘Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense’ and ‘I Am the Times.’ Above the brim, a pair of riders call out ‘Devil take the hindmost’ before a label of Divorces, clearly recalling the high profile divorces of the Duke of Grafton, Viscount Bolingbroke, and Lord Grosvenor. Above this, a liberty cap is impaled by a weathervane with a flag reading ‘Fixt as Fate.’ The figure’s torso shows ‘Crown Law’ as spilling coin and ‘Club Law’ as a physical bludgeon beating George Clarke, who was killed in the riots of the Brentford election a year previous. The electoral figures on the man’s arms refer to Luttrell’s success over Wilkes in the Middlesex election, despite the latter’s considerable popular support.
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The figure’s waistcoat also contains coded references to Bute and Wilkes. On the right, the plaid pattern stands for Bute’s perceived Jacobite sympathies, while the large 45 on the left refers to Wilkes’ most notorious issue of his New Briton pamphlet, for which he and forty eight others were arrested on a charge of seditious libel under a general warrant issued on the orders of King George III. His supporters turned the name of the edition into a popular chant, supporting Wilkes with shouts of ‘Wilkes, Liberty, and Number 45.’ From the skirt pockets of the costume unroll the various bills, orders, petitions, and manifestos of the two sides, while the figure’s left hand clasps the ‘Magna Charta.’ A pair of unrolled scrolls, one on each side, provide a list of decorations of the character’s back, as well as a key to the colourist for the presentation of each half of the figure. BM Satires 4315. Condition: Old adhesive staining to margins from old mount, with associated tears and chips not affecting image. Uniform time toning to sheet. [52308] £975
35. The Trial of M. D’Eon by a Jury of Matrons. [Anonymous] Copper engraving [Printed for A. Hamilton, London. 1 June 1771] Image 102 x 165 mm, Plate 108 x 172 mm, Sheet 133 x 212 mm unmounted A scene showing the trial of the Chevalier d’Éon, a most likely fictional event acknowledging and satirising the mass furore in the questioning of the Chevalier’s gender. The scene shows a court like scene, a group of twelve well dressed ladies are seen to the right, the jury, whilst a partially clothed figure stands on a pedestal to the left, the Chevalier d’Éon, being examined by another lady. The accompanying text goes into the details of the scene. It is scandalous and satirical in its nature, emphasising the mass public interest and gossip that was happening at the height of the excitement over the issue. The text indicates the identity of some of the jury: “Lady Har------n”. [Harrington.], “L------y R------d”. [Rochford], “L------y T-----sh-----d” [Townshend], “L------y G------r”. [Grosvenor], “L-----y Sarah B-----y” [Bunbury], “L------y Lig-----r” [Ligonier], “L------y R-----y” [Rodney]. The “D. of N.” [Northumberland]. This most likely fictional scene is set in Medmenham Abbey, the home of Sir Francis Dashwood’s Hellfire Club during this period. This print appears to be the earliest depiction of the growing public interest in the questioning of the Chevalier’s gender. In October 1770, Louis XV wrote to one of his generals noting that M. du Châtelet, the new French ambassador to Britain, believed that d’Eon was a woman, sparking rumours and gossip amongst polite society which then made it to the press.
By March 1771, bets had begun to be placed on the Chevalier’s gender with papers reporting that £60,000 had been wagered. However suspicion grew that the Chevalier themselves was financially benefiting from it. Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Éon de Beaumont (1728 - 1810), usually known as the Chevalier d’Éon, was born in Burgundy. Starting as a French soldier, d’Eon eventually became part of Louis XV’s network of spies, and was first sent out to Russia and later to England. Although born male, d’Eon often wore women’s clothes during missions, and spread rumours about having been born female. After an argument with the French ambassador, d’Eon refused to go back to France and even threatened to release sensitive information to the British court. Eventually Louis XV exiled d’Eon but allowed for a generous pension, as long as d’Eon handed over any documents incriminating the French government, and demanding d’Eon officially declared a gender. She choose to be known as a woman, and dressed accordingly for the rest of her life. Not being able to rejoin the army as a female however, she enjoyed a celebrity status in England and earned money by fencing competitively. Condition: Toning to sheet. Small stain to left hand margin, not affecting image. Some creasing to lower sheet edge and binding holes. [52317] £200
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GENERAL INTEREST
36. Henry Callender Esqr. To the Society of Goffers at Blackheath William Ward after Lemuel Francis Abbott Mezzotint Pubd. July 16, 1812, by Wm. Ward, 24 Buckingham Place, Fitzroy Square Image 645 x 428 mm, plate 650 x 430 mm, Sheet 688 x 472 mm unmounted Inscribed below image: “Painted by L.F. Abbott.” “Engraved by Wm. Ward, Engraver to their R.H. the Prince Regent & Duke of York.” and below title: “This Plate is with just Respect, Dedicated by Their most humble Servant, Wm. Ward.””Proof” A rare proof impression of one of the earliest printed golfing portraits. Ward’s large-scale mezzotint portrait of Henry Callender Esqr., Captain General of the Society of Golfers at Blackheath, now the Royal Blackheath Golf Club, England’s oldest golf club. Callender is shown full length, wearing the club’s Field Marshal uniform and medal, a role that involved overseeing the cutting of holes on the course. Callender leans upon a stout spoon, with a putter propped against a pillar to his left. The original painting was until 2015 in the collection of the Royal Blackheath, along with a putter traditionally identified as the one in the painting, both having been purchased by the Society in 1812 to facilitate the creation of Ward’s mezzotint in honour of Callender and his contributions to the club. Chaloner Smith 20 i/ii, Russell 20 ii/iii, O’Donohue 1, Lennox-Boyd ii/iii Condition: Clean dark impression. Toning to image from previous mounting and framing, heavier toning and mount burn to margins just outside plate mark. Patch of discolouration to right of inscription with inclusion in centre. Old framing tape to verso at top. [52268] £1,750
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37. To the Society of Goffers at Blackheath. Valentine Green after Lemuel Francis Abbott Mezzotint with hand colouring Published Novr. 22d. 1790 by L.F. Abbott Caroline Street Bedford Square. Image 602 x 430 mm, Plate 655 x 432 mm, Sheet 737 x 525 mm unmounted Inscribed below image: “Painted by L. F. Abbott 1790.”, “Engraved by V. Green Mezzotinto Engraver to his Majesty & the Elector Palatine” and below title: “This Plate is, with just Respect, Dedicated by Their most humble Servant Lemuel Francis Abbott.” A very rare, large-scale, mezzotint portrait of William Innes ‘The Blackheath Golfer’ alongside an unnamed Greenwich Hospital Naval pensioner serving as his caddie, shown on the heath near Greenwich. This is the earliest, and the most widely recognised golfing print ever published. This full-length portrait is after the life-size painting by Lemuel Francis Abbott, commissioned by William Innes in 1790. Innes, a sugar merchant from London, was captain of the Society of Golfers at Blackheath, now Royal Blackheath Golf Club, England’s oldest golf club. He is depicted wearing a long red coat with a long-nosed golf club over his shoulder, clutching his glove and a ‘Feathery’ golf ball in his left hand. Behind Innes is his caddie in a tricorn hat, carrying seven more clubs and a bottle of alcohol tucked in his coat pocket. Chaloner Smith 75, Russell 75, O’Donohue 1, Lennox- Boyd i/i Condition: Good impression on laid paper with two unidentified watermarks, one of a rectangle surmounted with a house and birds, and the other two lines of indistinguishable text. Even toning to image from previous mounting and framing, heavier toning to margins. Old framing tape to verso at top. [52264] £5,500
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38. The LAWS of the NOBLE GAME of CRICKET as revised by the Club at St Mary-le-bone [Anonymous] Copper engraving with hand colouring London, Publish’d May 25, 1809, by John Wallis, 13 Warwick Squ. Newgate Street Image 373 x 230 mm, Sheet 450 x 290 mm unmounted A rare printed broadside outlining the laws of cricket set below an engraved headpiece depicting a Cricket Match. The engraving is a near copy of the oil painting “A Game of Cricket (The Royal Academy Club in Marylebone Fields, now Regent’s Park)” after Francis Hayman (YCBA B2001.2.165). The positioning and posture of the players is an almost exact match to the painting, however the background has been altered to include a bell tent topped with St. George’s flag, sheltering a group of ladies at a table, a rustic dwelling and distant windmill and church tower. The publisher, Wallis, had previously published a broadside on the Laws of cricket in 1785 titled: “As Established at the Star and Garter in Pall-Mall by a Committee of Noblemen & Gentlemen” this version of the laws from 1809 was issued in the year in which the MCC (“the Club at St Mary-le-bone”) republished the updated Laws of cricket in their entirety. Condition: Good clean impression. Light dirt build-up, stain, and repaired tear to bottom of sheet, not affecting printed image. Printed on laid paper with an unidentified watermark: single handled pot,with the initials “I.D.”,topped with a crescent [52337] £500
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39. Pocket Chart of Foreign Architecture, Chronologically arranged by Archibald Barrington M.D. James Kellaway Colling Chromolithograph James K. Colling del. & lith. Day & Haghe Lithrs. to the Queen. Published by George Bell, Fleet Street, March 1844. 455 x 320 mm unmounted A characterful folding chart depicting the development of old world architectural styles, by the illustrator and architect James Kellaway Colling. The chart spans a period of 3500 years, dividing the last three millenia into eight different eras or styles. In the top right corner, stylised examples of Egyptian architecture are shown. These are followed by prehistoric monuments representing ‘Celtic and Cyclopean’ architecture including Stonehenge, Tiryns, and Avebury. The third style is Indian, and includes what Barrington concluded were the earliest examples of the arch. At centre are Greek and Roman architecture, represented by the Parthenon and Trajan’s Arch at Benevento. The primacy of classical architecture is emphasised by a pair of illustrations showing the five orders of classical architecture. The final register of the chart contains examples of medieval architecture. Byzantine and Romanesque styles include the Church of St Cyriac in Ancona and Worms Cathedral, Gothic is represented by Rouen Cathedral, and two Florentine palazzi demonstrate the Italian style. The whole is enclosed in a decorative border printed in red, with an ornate blackletter title along the top. Condition: Sectioned and laid to linen as issued. Minor uniform time toning to chart. Minor wear to linen folds. Detached from original brown and gilt cover. [52045] £125
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40. [Double Blintz Folded Taufenpatenbrief ] [Anonymous] Copper engraved with early hand colour den 4 Oktober Anno 1793 [Germany, c.1793] Image 145 x 145 mm, Sheet 155 x 155 mm unmounted An unusual piece of printed religious folk ephemera from late eighteenth century Germany, comprising a certificate of baptism on the reverse, and on the obverse, a double blintz pattern of engraved images of the Evangelists and the life of Christ surrounding a central image of baptism. These printed certificates were commonly given to newly baptised infants by their godparents, and were known by various different names. The more elaborate examples, like this one, folded in a double blintz pattern, though simple letter fold examples are also attested. Godparents would usually fill out the child’s name, home town, and either birth or baptismal date on the reverse, which would then be folded and concealed within the taufbrief, often along with a coin or a similar token such as a needle, salt, or grains of wheat, intended to bring luck and prosperity to the infant throughout their lives.
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Some examples were sealed with wax, though the current example was left unsealed, presumably so the recipient could fold and unfold the various tabs to reveal the devotional images contained therein. On the verso, the dedication, in letterpress blackletter, is accompanied by six panels of scripture. The date of dedication is easily discernible, though the name and possible location of the recipient is illegible. Condition: Vertical, horizontal, and diagonal folds, as intended. Wear and dirt staining to folds. Oil stains and foxing to sheet. Some punctures and minor tears, consistent with use. [52303] £300
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TOPOGRAPHY
41. The Duke of Marlborough’s house Erected by Queen Ann, in the Royal park of Woodstock... [Blenheim] John Harris Copper engraving Sold by Tho: Taylor at ye Golden Lyon over against Sergants Inn in Fleet Street. [c.1724] Image 467 x 1182 mm, Plate 507 x 1200 mm, Sheet 544 x 1238 mm unmounted A scarce large scale print of the front elevation of Blenheim Palace printed on two sheets with eagles on pillars on either side of the image, three figures in the foreground two seated, one on the left with an halberd and the one on the right with a pike, the central figure standing pointing to Blenheim , and the coat of arms of the Duke of Marlborough between the English and French inscriptions. This print is most likely to be for the 1724 edition of ‘Britannia Illustrata’ for which Harris engraved numerous additional plates including plates print published by Thomas Taylor, but as no one copy of this work is the same it is hard to know for certain. This print, however, has the same engraved height, borders, and crest motif as other plates by Harris. It is easy to surmise that the size of this print meant it was not often included in this work.
Inscribed below image in English and French: “The Duke of Marlborough’s house Erected by Queen Ann, in the Royal park of Woodstock, near Oxford, in Memory, of the Great Victory near Blenheim in Bavaria. And by that Name Settled by Act of Parliament upon him & his Prosperity for ever, as a reward for that Great and Glorious Service, by which the Liberty’s of Europe were preserv’d. ________ Humbly Dedicated to his Grace, by his Most Humble. Tho: Taylor.” Condition: Printed on two sheets and joined. Pressed vertical folds, presumably as issued. Small repaired teat to centre of image on join. Small repaired loss to bottom margin at join. Toning to sheet, especially on verso. [52226] £2,500
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42. Snowdon in Caernarvonshire William Walker and William Angus aftter Paul Sandby Copper engraving Publish’d according to Act of Parliament by G. Kearsly, in Fleet Street 1. Feb. 1779. Image 133 x 183 mm, Plate 154 x 200 mm, Sheet 200 x 272 mm unmounted A view of Mount Snowdon from Paul Sandby’s The virtuosi’s museum : containing select views, in England, Scotland and Ireland drawn by P. Sandby. The view of the mountain is in a decorative engraved oval containing leeks and wheat; the figures of a man with a fishing net and basket with a woman and young boy to the left of the title, bearded man with a harp to the right, fox and a pitcher. Condition: Occasional foxing to margins. [52060] £50
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43. Sinagogue des Juifs [Anonymous] Copper engraving [Paris c. 1730] Image 310 x 430 mm, Plate 315 x 450 mm, Sheet 385 x 510 mm unmounted A depiction of the interior of a Synagogue with numbered key below, from Antoine Augustin Calmet’s Dictionnaire historique, critique, chronologique, géographique et littéral de la Bible. The print illustrates a candle lit synagogue with the male congregation standing in the foreground and seated along the sides. The women are separated from the men in screened bay seating above. A scripture is rolled out upon an alter in the centre and is approached by a Cantor who recites the prayers along with three younger members of the congregation. The Rabbi stands in front of the Torah ark holding a scroll of law aloft. Condition: Centre fold as issued. small binding holes to top and bottom margin and just below title. [52314] £350
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44. Churfürstlich sächsisches Feuerwerk bei der Vestung Pleissenburg 1667, den 8. July. [Elector of Saxony firework display at the Pleissenburg Fortress 1667, July 8th] Matthäus Merian II Copper engraving [Frankfurt:1677] Image 295 x 346 mm, Plate 297 x 350 mm, Sheet 340 x 385 mm unmounted A striking engraving of the magnificent firework display at the Pleissenburg Castle in Leipzig held on July 8th, 1667, in honour of Johann Georg II, Elector of Saxony 1656-1680, from Merian’s Theatrum Europaeum. The print depicts rockets lighting up the sky around an obelisk featuring the initials and portrait of Johann Georg II. Sparklers and Catherine Wheels feature in the lake and tiered garden below, with a Catherine Wheel spinning around the initials on the obelisk. Condition: Good dark impression. Centre fold as issued. [52312] £375
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45. Eigentliche abbild und vorstellung deß sehr künstlichen und kostbarn feuerwercks, welches auf dem hochfeyerlichen kayserl... [Firework display to mark The marriage of Leopold I to Margarita Teresa] Matthäus Merian II Copper engraving [Frankfurt:1677] Image 295 x 340 mm, Plate 300 x 345 mm, Sheet 340 x 385 mm unmounted A spectacular and atmospheric engraving of the lavish fireworks display on 8 December 1666, celebrating the marriage of Leopold I to Margarita Teresa of Spain, from Merian’s Theatrum Europaeum. The print depicts hundreds of rockets lighting up the sky and an illuminated ‘A.E.I.O.U’. In the foreground two flaming hearts engraved with the initials L&M (Leopold and Margarita) sit upon ornate archways.
The festivities held to celebrate the marriage of Leopold I and Margarita Teresa lasted almost two years and are regarded as the climax of Baroque magnificence at the Viennese Court. Condition: Good dark impression. Centre fold as issued. Plate very slightly worn in patches to left foreground. [52305] £375
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OXFORD & CAMBRIDGE
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46. Habitus Academici In Universitate Oxoniensi, Pro Sortis Gradus [Academic Dress] David Loggan Copper engraving [Oxford, 1675] Image 370 x 508 mm, Plate 403 x 515 mm, Sheet 427 x 543 mm unmounted An illustration of the various forms of Oxford academic dress, from the first edition of ‘Oxonia Illustrata’ published in 1675. Oxonia Illustrata was the first illustrated book on Oxford and one of the major works of the 17th century. The book was the product of several years of devoted and conscientious effort in which Loggan was assisted by his pupil Robert White.
David Loggan was born in Danzig in 1635 and came to England around 1653. By 1665 he was living in Nuffield near Oxford and in 1669 was appointed engraver to the University. In 1675 he married and became a naturalised citizen. His Oxonia Illustrata was intended as a companion work to Historia Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis by Anthony Woods, with whom Loggan had become acquainted some years earlier. Condition: Pressed vertical centre fold as issued. Repaired to centrefold at bottom of the sheet not affecting the image or plate. Numeral 10 written in old red in lower right of the plate. [51957] £450
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47. Oxoniensis Universitas, The South Prospect of the City of Oxford Sutton Nicholls after Johannes Kip Copper engraving Printed & Sold by J. Smith at the Sign of Exeter Change near the Fountain Tavern 1724 Image 445 x 680 mm, Sheet 485 x 695 mm framed A striking reduced version of Kip’s 1705 Oxford prospect, from the third volume of the 1724 edition of Joseph Smith’s Britannia Illustrata. The print depicts a view of Oxford from south of the River Thames. Meadows are depicted in the foreground, with the River Cherwell and the River Isis intersecting. To the far right, Magdalen College, Magdalen Bridge, and St Clements are detailed, and to the far left, the castle and St Thomas’ Church. Spires and towers decorate the skyline, including a curiously positioned Sheldonian Theatre.
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A scroll inscribed with ‘Oxoniensis Universitas. The South Prospect of the City of Oxford’ is set top centre, with putti either side. Beneath the image, a numbered key (1 - 32), names colleges, churches, and other points of interest. Condition: Pressed vertical folds and sheet join as issued, some reinforced on verso. Repaired tears to edges. Trimmed within plate mark with small loss to crest on lower margin. Printer’s creases and repair to top right corner. Framed in an impressive hand made period style black and gilt frame. [52018] £2,200
48. Le College de Wadham. Le College de Glocester Hall à Oxford. Le College de New-Inn Hall à Oxford. Le College de Pembrok. Pieter van der Aa after David Loggan Copper engraving [Leiden, c.1714] Image 334 x 405 mm, Plate 344 x 420 mm, Sheet 361 x 465 mm unmounted A composite print showing four of Pieter van der Aa’s reductions of David Loggan’s views of Oxford University buildings, surrounded by a decorative border and facsimile frame. The four colleges depicted are Le College de Wadham (Wadham College), Le College de Glocester Hall à Oxford (Worcester College), Le College de New-Inn Hall à Oxford (St. Peter’s College), and Le College de Pembrok (Pembroke College). The individual plates had originally been engraved by Van der Aa to decorate Beverell’s Les Delices de la Grand Bretagne before being reset as composite sheets with decorative borders for Van der Aa’s own monumental 66 volume La Galerie Agréable du Monde. Condition: Even light toning to sheet. [52233] £250
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49. Collegium sive Domus S. Petri [Peterhouse Cambridge] David Loggan Copper engraving [David Loggan, Cambridge, 1690] Image 295 x 470 mm, Plate 325 x 471 mm, Sheet 443 x 563 mm unmounted An interior view of the Old Court of Peterhouse, Cambridge from the first edition of David Loggan’s ‘Cantabrigia Illustrata,’ published c.1690. Cantabrigia Illustrata, like its earlier Oxonian counterpart, was the first illustrated book on Cambridge and one of the major works of the 17th century. Begun shortly after the publication of Oxonia Illustrata in 1675, the work was likely inspired by the time Loggan spent at Trinity College working on prints of Wren’s designs for Trinity College library. Although the exact date of publication is unknown, it was certainly in circulation by 1690, the year in which Loggan was appointed Engraver to the University of Cambridge. Condition: Strong clean impression with full margins. Central vertical fold, as issued. Pressed creases to corners of sheet. Repaired splitting to printers crease at top right. [52297] £800
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50. View of Cambridge from the Castle Hill John William Edy after Richard Harraden Aquatint with original hand colouring R. Harraden Delin. & Excud. Engraved by I.W. Edy. Publish’d June 12th. 1798 by R. Harraden (proprietor of the Six Large Views) No. 16 Little Newport Stt. Leicester Sqr. & Gt. St. Mary’s Lane Cambridge Image 430 x 570 mm, Plate 460 x 630 mm, Sheet 550 x 725 mm unmounted A very rare large-scale view of Cambridge from the top of Castle Mound, engraved by Edy for a series of six large scale views of Cambridge. The view shows the city, with the windows of St Giles Church prominent at centre. Beyond, the spire of All Saint’s Church, the tower of St Johns College, and the roofline of King’s College Chapel can be seen. In the foreground, a shepherd reclines beside his dog, while his flock grazes nearby. Abbey Scenery 75.7 Condition: Time toning to sheet from old mount. Creases and folds to margins from old frame. Slight discolouration to original hand colouring from time toning. [52273] £1,250
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Artists, Printmakers, & Publishers
BIOGRAPHIES
Lemuel Francis Abbott (1760/61- 1803) was an English portrait painter, most well known for his painting of Horatio Nelson, and those of Captain William Innes and Henry Callender of Blackheath Golf Club. Abbott studied under Francis Hayman and although he exhibited at the Royal Academy, he never became an Academician. It is said that overwork, due to the commissions he took on, and domestic unhappiness led to him being declared insane in 1798. Thomas Agnew and Sons were a British publishing firm established in Manchester in 1817 by Thomas Agnew and Vittore Zanetti. Although primarily a print publishers, the firm later became best-known as a dealer in modern and Old Master paintings. The London branch was established in 1860. After Agnew’s retirement in 1861, the business was run from 1861 until 1895 by William Agnew. George Bell (1814-1890) was a British printer and publisher, and the founder of George Bell & Sons. Antoine Augustin Calmet (1672 – 1757) was a French Benedictine monk and is regarded as the greatest biblical scholar of the eighteenth century. Calmet studied under the Jesuit father Ignace de L’Aubrussel at the University of Pontà-Mousson and upon comleteing his studies he became one of the most distinguished members of the Congregation of St. Vanne. Hiewrote prolifically on the history of Lorraine and the Bible, the later reprinted several times and translated into Latin and the principal European languages. Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785) was an Italian painter, and the first exponent of Neoclassicism in England. He played an important part in directing eighteenth-century English artistic taste. His first lessons were given to him by a Florentine of English descent, Ignatius Hugford, and then under Anton Domenico Gabbiani. He was in Rome from 1750–1753, where he became acquainted with Sir William Chambers, the architect, and Joseph Wilton, the sculptor, whom he accompanied to England in August 1755. James Kellaway Colling (1816-1905) was a British designer, illustrator, architect, and pioneer of chromolithographic printing. His interest in half-timbered buildings, and the preservation of Britain’s ancient churches, was echoed by his more famous contemporaries John Ruskin and William Morris.
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Day & Haghe were one of the most prominent lithographic companies of the nineteenth-century. They were also amongst the foremost pioneers in the evolution of chromolithography. The firm was established in 1823 by William Day, but did not trade under the moniker of Day & Haghe until the arrival of Louis Haghe in 1831. In 1838, Day & Haghe were appointed as Lithographers to the Queen. However, and perhaps owing to the fact that there was never a formal partnership between the two, Haghe left the firm in the 1850’s to devote himself to watercolour painting. The firm continued as Day & Son under the guidance of William Day the younger (1823-1906) but, as a result of a scandal involving Lajos Kossuth, was forced into liquidation in 1867. Vincent Brookes bought the company in the same year, and would produce the caricatures for Gibson Bowles’ Vanity Fair magazine, as well as the illustrations for Cassells’s Poultry Book, amongst other commissions. Sir Francis Bernard Dicksee KCVO (1853 - 1928) was an English painter and illustrator, best known for his dramatic historical and legendary scenes. Although not a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood many of Dicksee’s paintings can be considered Pre-Raphaelite in style. He was also a noted portrait painter, which helped to bring him success in his own time. The son of the artist Thomas Dicksee, Frank and his siblings Herbert and Margaret, were all taught to paint from an early age. In 1870, Dicksee enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools and achieved early success. He was elected to the Academy in 1891, and became its President in 1924. He was knighted in 1925, and named to the Royal Victorian Order by King George V in 1927. Robert Dighton (1752 - 1814) was an English draughtsman and printmaker. He was the son of the art dealer John Dighton, and father of the artists Robert Junior, Denis, and Richard. Dighton was especially well known for his satirical prints, which he initially supplied to Carington Bowles and Haines. Later plates he etched, published, and sold himself. Dighton infamously stole prints from the British Museum to stock his shop in Charing Cross. When this was discovered in 1806, Dighton escaped prosecution, but was forced to lie low in Oxford until the scandal died down.
Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) was a celebrated German polymath. Though primarily a painter, printmaker and graphic artist, he was also a writer, mathematician and theoretician. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer was apprenticed to the painter Michel Wolgemut whose workshop produced woodcut illustrations for major books and publications. He travelled widely between the years of 1492 and 1494, and is known to have visited Martin Schongauer, the leading German painter and engraver at the time, at his studio in Colmar. In 1495, Dürer set up his own workshop in his native Nuremberg, and, by the beginning of the sixteenthcentury, had already published three of his most famous series’ of woodcuts: The Apocalypse, The Large Passion, and The Life of the Virgin. Nuremberg was something of a hub for Humanism at this time, and Dürer was privy to the teachings of Philipp Melanchthon, Willibald Pirkheimer and Desiderius Erasmus. The latter went so far as to call Dürer ‘the Apelles of black lines’, a reference to the most famous ancient Greek artist. Though Dürer’s approach to Protestantism was not as staunch as that of his fraternity, his artwork was just as revolutionary. For their technical virtuosity, intellectual scope, and psychological depth, Dürer’s works were unmatched by earlier printed work, and, arguably, have yet to be equalled. Richard Earlom (1743 - 1822) was a British painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He was born in London, and was apprenticed to Giovanni Battista Cipriani after he was discovered making sketches of the Lord Mayor’s coach. This natural faculty for art manifested throughout Earlom’s career, and he is believed to have taught himself the technique of mezzotint. In 1765, Earlom went to work for John Boydell, who commissioned the artist to produce a large series of works from Sir Robert Walpole’s collection at Houghton Hall. His works after van Huysum, as well as the still-life painter Jan van Os, are widely recognised as his most striking. John William Edy (1760-1820) was a British landscape painter and printmaker, working most often for the publishers John and Josiah Boydell, though he also selfpublished. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1779 and exhibited there in 1785 and 1801-2. His views of Norway, published in Picturesque Scenerey of Norway, are among his best known works. P Gally were London based publishers active from c.1798 c.1840’s. They are most well known for their popular prints. James Gillray (c.1756-1815) was a British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires. Born in Chelsea, Gillray studied letter-engraving, and was later admitted to the Royal Academy where he was influenced by the work of Hogarth. His caricature L’Assemblée Nationale (1804) gained huge notoriety when the Prince of Wales paid a large sum of money to have it suppressed and its plate destroyed.
Gillray lived with his publisher and print-seller Miss (often called Mrs) Humphrey during the entire period of his fame. Twopenny Whist, a depiction of four individuals playing cards, is widely believed to feature Miss Humphrey as an ageing lady with eyeglasses and a bonnet. One of Gillray’s later prints, Very Slippy-Weather, shows Miss Humphrey’s shop in St. James’s Street in the background. In the shop window a number of Gillray’s previously published prints, such as Tiddy-Doll the Great French Gingerbread Maker [...] a satire on Napoleon’s king-making proclivities, are shown in the shop window. His last work Interior of a Barber’s Shop in Assize Time, from a design by Bunbury, was published in 1811. While he was engaged on it he became mad, although he had occasional intervals of sanity. Gillray died on 1 June 1815, and was buried in St James’s churchyard, Piccadilly. Valentine Green (1739-1813) was a British mezzotinter, Associate Royal Academician and publisher, often in association with his son Rupert. In 1773 he was appointed mezzotint engraver to the King George III and in 1774 he became a member of the Royal Academy. In 1775, he was appointed mezzotint engraver to Karl Theodor, Elector Palatine, and in 1789, he worked on the engraving and publishing of pictures in the Düsseldorf Gallery. Green was one of the first engravers to show how admirably mezzotint could be applied to the translation of pictorial compositions as well as portraits. His engravings are distinguished by exceptional richness, subtlety of tone, and a deft handling of light and shade. Richard Harraden (1756-1838) was a British draughtsman and printseller, best known for his series of views of Cambridge. Originally a carver and gilder, he moved to Cambridge, where, after an unsuccessful first foray into landscape drawing for the printseller David Hood, he issued a set of six large-scale aquatint views of the University City. From 1808, in conjunction with his son Richard Banks Harraden (1778-1862), he began issuing a series of smaller views of Cambridge and the Colleges under the title Cantabrigia Depicta. In addition to landscapes, he also produced illustrative engravings after old masters in the collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum. John Harris, Snr. (fl. 1700-40) was an engraver of maps, architectural, and topographical views, and a draughtsman. While he began his career engraving maps including a map of Buckinghamshire for Robert Morden, Harris is principally remembered as an engraver of architectural subjects. He most well known for 28 plates in Giacomo Leni’s Palladio, plates in John Rocque’s Vitruvius Britannicus, and plates for Harris’ reissued Britannia Illustrata (Nouveau Théâtre de la Grande Bretagne). Johann Kaspar Heilman (1718-1760) was Swiss genre painter. He was student of the Swiss painter Hans Kaspar Deggeler in Schaffhausen. He worked in Basle and then awarded a stipendium to Rome. French ambassador Cardinal de Tencin took him back to Paris in 1742, where part of the Wille circle and lived till his death.
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Robert Joseph Hixon (c.1766-1834) was a British engraver and publisher. Born in London, Hixon is most known for his engravings after Thomas Rowlandson and Samuel Howitt. William Hogarth (1697 - 1764) was born in London, the son of an unsuccessful schoolmaster and writer from Westmoreland. After apprenticeship to a goldsmith, he began to produce his own engraved designs in about 1710. He later took up oil painting, starting with small portrait groups called conversation pieces. He went on to create a series of paintings satirising contemporary customs, but based on earlier Italian prints, of which the first was The Harlot’s Progress (1731), and perhaps the most famous The Rake’s Progress. His engravings were so plagiarised that he lobbied for the Copyright Act of 1735, commonly referred to as ‘Hogarth’s Act,’ as a protection for writers and artists. During the 1730s Hogarth also developed into an original painter of life-sized portraits, and created the first of several history paintings in the grand manner. Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) left his native Prague in 1627. He spent several years travelling and working in Germany before his patron, the Earl of Arundel brought him to London in 1636. During the civil wars, Hollar fought on the Royalist side, after which he spent the years 1644-52 in Antwerp. Hollar’s views of London form an important record of the city before the Great Fire of 1666. He was prolific and engraved a wide range of subjects, producing nearly 2,800 prints, numerous watercolours and many drawings. Johannes ‘Jan’ Kip (1653 - 1722) was a Dutch draughtsman, engraver, and print dealer who was active in England, after producing works for the court of William of Orange in Amsterdam. Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Kip accompanied the Court to England and settled in Westminster, where he conducted a thriving print selling business from his house in St. John’s Street. He also worked for various London publishers producing engravings, largely for book illustrations. His most important works were the execution of the illustrations for Britannia Illustrata, 1708; The Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire, 1712, and Le Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne, 1715. Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet (1646-1723) was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I. His major works include The Chinese Convert (1687) a series of four portraits of Isaac Newton painted at various junctures of the latter’s life, a series of ten reigning European monarchs, including King Louis XIV of France, over 40 “Kit-cat portraits” of members of the Kit-Cat Club and ten “beauties” of the court of William III, to match a similar series of ten beauties of the court of Charles II painted by his predecessor as court painter, Sir Peter Lely.
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Robert Laurie (c.1755-1836) was a British engraver, mezzotint artist, and publisher. In 1776, he was awarded a prize by the Society of Arts for the invention of a method of producing colour-printed mezzotints. Laurie succeeded the publisher Robert Sayer after the latter’s death in 1794, and, in partnership with James Whittle, continued Sayer’s prolific and well-established business on the Fleet Street, issuing prints, maps, illustrated books, charts, and nautical works. Following Laurie’s retirement in 1812, Whittle continued in business with his former partner’s son, Richard Holmes Laurie, who gained sole ownership of the business in 1818 with the death of Whittle. Frederick Christian Lewis (1779 -1856) was a British printmaker, and sometimes painter, who specialised in aquatint and reproducing drawings. Lewis was ‘Engraver of Drawings to the Queen.’ Numerous members of the Lewis family were involved in printmaking, publishing, and painting, including his brother Charles, and his sons John Frederick, Charles George, and Frederick Christian Jnr. Having studied under J.C. Stadler, he worked initially for Ottley, and then for many years for Thomas Lawrence. George Robert Lewis (1782-1871) was an English portrait and landscape painter. He was the younger brother of the artist Frederick Christian Lewis and the bookbinder Charles Lewis. David Loggan (1635-1692), artist and engraver, was born at Danzig in 1635. He may have learnt the art of engraving from Simon van den Passe in Denmark and from Hendrik Hondius in the Netherlands. Loggan followed Hondius’s sons to England in about 1653, and by 1665 he was residing at Nuffield, near Oxford, and had made the acquaintance of the antiquarian Anthony Wood. On 30 March 1669 he was appointed Engraver to the University of Oxford, with an annual salary of twenty shillings. He married a daughter of Robert Jordan, Esq. of Kencote Hall in Oxfordshire in 1671, and in 1672 they had a son, John Loggan, who later graduated from Trinity College. The marriage probably produced another son, William Loggan, about whom little is known except that he was responsible for a satirical print of Father Peters and the Jesuits, published in 1681. David Loggan took up residence in Holywell in about 1671, prior to matriculating at the University. In 1675 he was naturalised as an Englishman. The remainder of his life was spent mostly in London, where he worked as an agent and art dealer, and as Engraver to the University of Cambridge, a position he attained in 1690, two years before his death. Loggan’s two great works were a series of architectural bird’s eye plans of the colleges and public buildings of Oxford and Cambridge, the Oxonia Illustrata, published in 1675, and its rarer sister Cantabrigia Illustrata, which appeared at some point previous to 1690. Following Loggan’s death, the plates were acquired and reprinted by Henry Overton in 1705 and c.1710 respectively.
Thomas Herbert Maguire (1821 – 1895) was an English artist and engraver, noted for his portraits of prominent figures. Matthäus Merian II (1621-1687) was a portrait painter, engraver and publisher. Born in Basel he was the son of Matthäus Merian the Elder and half brother of Maria Sibylla Merian. In 1650, after his father’s death, he took over the family printing business. John Murphy (c.1756-1820) was an Anglo-Irish mezzotint engraver, best known as the engraver of one of the mezzotints after Stubbs’ Tigress, as well as this print of Northcote’s Tyger, though he also produced numerous portraits and large subject plates. He resided and worked in collaboration with George Keating, and in 1785 is recorded as having taken on James Daniell as an apprentice. Sutton Nicholls (1668-1729) was a British engraver, print seller, draughtsman and globe maker. Although best known for his panoramic views of the cities of London and Westminster, Sutton also produced prospects of gentlemen’s seats. A majority of his work was commissioned by publishers. James Northcote (1746-1831) was a history and portrait painter, Northcote was assistant to Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1771-5, and later his biographer. He was known for his dignified portraits in the Reynolds tradition, but also produced grandiose history paintings, many for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery. Henry Overton (1676 - 1751) was a British engraver, publisher, mapmaker, and printseller. The son of the mapseller John Overton, and brother of Philip Overton, Henry set up his own business in 1707 in partnership with John Hoole. His earlier maps were largely based on acquired plates engraved by Sutton Nicholls, John Speed, and Blaeu. In addition to his own works, he also published revised editions of Speed’s Atlas, as well as David Loggan’s views of the colleges and public buildings of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and decorative prints and portraits. James Roberts (c.1725-1799) was a British printmaker, engraver, and architectural draughtsman, whose work ranged from topographical views to portraits and natural history illustrations. David Alexander comments that it is unclear whether this portrait is his work, though it has previously been attributed to him.
Paul Sandby (1731-1809) was a British watercolourist and printmaker. Born in Nottingham, he moved to London in 1745 where he joined his older brother, Thomas Sandby, at the topographical drawing room of the Board of Ordnance, at the Tower of London. He played an important part in the survey of the Scottish Highlands after the Jacobite Rebellion. From the 1750s he was involved in the campaign to found the Royal Academy. In 1768 he was appointed drawing master to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He made a number of satirical etchings, notably against Hogarth in 1753-4 and the early 1760s. He often collaborated with his brother in providing figures for topographical watercolours. He learned aquatint from Burdett in December 1773. Robert Sayer (1725-1794) was one of the most prolific and successful British publishers, cartographers, and printsellers of the Georgian era. Following his brother’s marriage to the daughter in law of the publisher John Overton, Sayer continued the business, branching out into sea charts, maritime atlases, and general maps. In addition to his cartographic achievements, Sayer was also instrumental in growing the public taste for prints after paintings, particularly those by Johan Zoffany, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship as well as a lucrative business partnership. Following his death, the business was continued by Laurie and Whittle. Johann Conrad Seekatz (1719-1768) was the most prominent of a dynasty of German painters, from 1753 he was a court painter in Darmstadt. William Sharp (fl. 1749-1824) was an English engraver. He apprenticed to Barak Longmate, who was a heraldic engraver. Sharp started up his own shop in Bartholomew Lane, working as a prolific book-illustrator and producing many ex libris or bookplates, trade cards etc. In 1771 he studied at the Royal Academy Schools, and ended up becoming one of the most distinguished line engravers in Britain. John Keyse Sherwin (1751 - 24th September 1790) was a British engraver, etcher, and painter, best known for his plates after Poussin, Murillo, and Gainsborough. Despite his reputation as a profligate and a gambler, Sherwin was a very talented engraver, who was allegedly capable of working ambidextrously. Nothing is known of C & T Stampa as a publisher. The British Museum note that they are perhaps members of the Stampa family of Printsellers and publisher of cheap decorative mezzotints of Leather Lane c.1799 – 1817. Note that Gally who published similar cheap prints was also in Leather Lane in 1799.
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Charles Spooner (died 1767) was an Irish mezzotint engraver, who worked in London towards the end of his life. Before 1756, Spooner travelled to London, where he primarily worked on producing copies of plates by other engravers for Robert Sayer and Carington Bowles. Pieter van der Aa (1659 – 1733) was a Dutch publisher, best known for preparing maps and atlases. Despite producing his own work, van der Aa is also known for his production of pirated editions of illustrated publications and foreign bestsellers. Beginning his career as a Latin trade publisher in Lieden in 1683, van der Aa’s ambition was to one day become the most famous printer in the city. In 1715, van der Aa was appointed the head printer for Leiden and its university. George Vertue (1684-1756) was an antiquary and engraver. He was born in the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Vertue was apprenticed to a silver engraver and later to the Flemish engraver Michael Vandergucht. His early work includes plates after Kneller, whose academy he attended from 1711. Vertue had a deep interest in antiquarian research, and much of his work was devoted to this subject. He also served as the official engraver to the Society of Antiquaries (1717-56). From 1713 onwards, Vertue dedicated his research to the details of the history of British art, which resulted in an extensive collection of notebooks now in the British Library. The contents of which were the basis of Horace Walpole’s 1762 ‘Anecdotes of Painting’. There are approximately five hundred portraits attributed to Vertue, and an equivalent number of published plates which were devoted to antiquarian subjects. John Wallis (died 1818) was a publisher, print, book, and map seller, publishing from Ludgate Street under the name “Map Warehouse” from 1775 and later in Warwick Square as “Instructive Toy Warehouse” from 1805. Along with his two sons John Wallis Jr. and Edward Wallis, they became one of the most prolific publishers of board games in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
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Charles Albert Waltner (1846 - 1925) was one of the most prolific reproductive engravers of his time. Born in Paris, he studied art under Louis Pierre Henriquel-Dupont and Jean-Leon Gerome. In 1868 he was awarded a scholarship to Rome, and made his debut at the Paris Salon two years later. Mainly engraving for the Journal de Beaux Artes and L’Art, Waltner’s work was popular in both France and Britain. An admirer of his expressive style, the British Pre-Raphaelite founder Sir John Everett Millais, actively sought Waltner to reproduce five of his compositions as etchings, including The Widow’s Mite. In 1882 the French government appointed him a chevalier of the Legion d’honneur, and in 1900, he received the Grand Prize for his art from the Exposition Universelle. William Ward (1762-1826) was a British engraver, particularly known for subject mezzotints and decorative stipples, but later in his career predominantly as a portrait engraver. He was apprenticed to the mezzotinter John Raphael Smith, though following Smith’s death, worked for various publishers, as well as in partnership with his brother James, also an engraver and painter, as Messrs. Wards & Co. He was connected by marriage with the painter George Morland twice over, with Morland marrying Ward’s sister Anne a month before Ward’s own wedding to Morland’s sister Maria. James Wilson (fl. 1764-74) mezzotint engraver working in London. Nothing is known of his life except through his work. Chaloner Smith attributes 24 mezzotints done by him between 1764 and 1774,
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