“ A  Menagerie  of  Gallows-Birds ”

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Idle ‘Prentice at Play in the Church Yard, during Divine Service. Tom Idle with shoeshine and two further guys on a coffin besides an open grave. Accordingly forcible the beadle reprimands them their wicked doings. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Design’d by W^m. Hogarth / Plate 3. / Engraved by T. Cook. / Published by T. Cook N^o. 11 Little Britain, & G. G. & J. Robinsons N^o. 25 Pater Noster Row, Oct^r. 1^st. 1795. 28.6 x 36.5 cm.

Industry & Idleness III. – Marvellous impression on buff paper. In its downright luxuriously wide white margin a few weak foxing spots and upper right slight waterstreak. Beyond that – contrary to all later Hogarth editions – in the original size. – Cook “made a name for himself as Hogarth engraver, too” (Thieme-Becker).

“ This time at least I have seen in Hogarth what is not. I admit I was really at the point to regard a menagerie of gallows-birds as a convention of theophilantropists. The error was great, but is not without example; not even in natura ”

(Lichtenberg).

The master’s famous, most popular suite, showing by example of two apprentices in a weaving mill as one of the main branches of industry in his days the chances of their life as well as the temptations detrimental to their career :

Calculated  for  the  use  &  Instruction  of  youth
w(h)erein  every  thing  necessary  to  be  known  was  to  be  made
as  intelligible  as  possible

(Hogarth in his Autobiographical Notes).

“ The scenes should be as easily intelligible as possible for which the engravings had not to be worked in all fineness. It was rather important to keep costs low so that even apprentices could buy these sheets. Hogarth designed a frame-like border around each picture – supposedly he assumed that the boys would pin up these engravings directly at the wall. In this border below of every scene he had added a characteristic verse from the Bible to the idle and (or) industrious apprentice … at top on the one hand a cat-o-’nine-tails, a pair of fetters, and a halter as emblems of the tragic end of the idle apprentice and on the other hand golden chain, sword and mace as hints to the career of the industrious one ”

(Bachofen-Moser, William Hogarth in the Art Gallery Zurich, 1983, p. 98).
Offer no. 7,530 / EUR  373. / export price EUR  354. (c. US$ 458.) + shipping

– – – The same in Hogarth’s own etching in an impression from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834, “earned applause early”, Nagler) about 1822 (“Even these impressions became relatively rare today though”, Art Gallery Esslingen 1970; and Meyers Konv.-Lex., 4^th ed., VIII [1888], 625: “A fine edition”). Inscribed: Design’d & Engrav’d by W^m. Hogarth / Plate 3. / Publish’d according to Act of Parliament Sep.^br 30. 1747. 26.6 x 34.9 cm.

Illustration Hogarth Catalogue Zurich, 1983, 55. – On wide-margined buff paper.
Offer no. 4,708 / EUR  61. (c. US$ 79.) + shipping

– – – The same in Cook’s smaller repetition, but without verse and marginal emblems and with the series title as subtext. Inscribed: Pl. III. / Hogarth pinx^t. / T. Cook sculp^t. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, July 1. 1807. Subject size 13.9 x 17.1 cm. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark.
Offer no. 8,882 / EUR  56. (c. US$ 73.) + shipping

– – – The same in engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840, university engraver there). Inscribed: W. Hogarth inv & pinx. / Pl. 3. / Riepenhs. f. 22.5 x 28 cm. – On slightly toned minor paper. – Riepenhausen’s engravings after Hogarth (“very estimable”, Nagler) belong to his chief work and are partly even preferred to Hogarth’s own engravings.
Offer no. 5,645 / EUR  76. (c. US$ 98.) + shipping

– – – The same in steel engraving about 1840. 13 x 16 cm. – With title in German + English, but without verse and marginal emblems.
Offer no. 7,689 / EUR  43. (c. US$ 56.) + shipping

Further single sujets of the set available in several qualities.

“ Yes please. I take that (further) copy.
I have now fetched the (last) parcel at the post office and I was very pleased. First of all: thank you for making so good parcel. I hate when I receive damaged copies because of bad envelopes. So once again: thank you very much for handling the items with such care! For me that is another word for seriousness and professionalism.
It was also a good copy and I liked it very much.
Please let me know if there is more items coming up ”

(Mrs. G. H., June 19, 2006)