Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Idle ‘Prentice return’d from Sea, & in a Garret with a common Prostitute. Seeing things. Especially if mice hush over the floor and the cat jumps off the chimney. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Design’d by W^m. Hogarth / Plate 7 / Engrav’d by T. Cook. / Published by T. Cook N^o. 11 Little Britain. & G. G. & I. Robinsons N^o. 25. Pater-Noster Row, Oct^r. 1^st. 1795. 28.2 x 36.5 cm.

Industry & Idleness VII. – Marvellous impression of fine chiaroscuro on buff paper and – contrary to all later Hogarth editions – in the original size. – Cook “made a name for himself as Hogarth engraver, too” (Thieme-Becker). Weak waterstreak in the wide white papermargin. There, too, foxing somewhat affecting the platemark.

“ What shall be hanged will not drown and therefore Tom Idle luckily escaped the dangers of the sea to devote himself to the honourable profession of robbery. The last day’s result of which he just spread on the bed of a wicked concubine. It does not appear that he will find much sleep. A cat falls … from the chimney … into the poor dwelling and devil’s noise caused by this terrifies him as if he would see the last day arrive … ”

(subtext of a lithograph).

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. 7,533 / EUR  176. (c. US$ 228.) + shipping

– – – The same, but with only fine papermargin around the platemark. At the top a tiny tear in the papermargin backed acid-freely. – Of fin contrast.
Offer no. 14,436 / EUR  168. (c. US$ 218.) + 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 7 / Publish’d according to Act of Parliam^t. Sep. 30. 1747. 26.8 x 34.9 cm.

Illustration Hogarth Catalogue Zurich, 1983, 59. – On wide-margined buff paper.
Offer no. 7,698 / 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. VII. / Hogarth pinx^t. / T. Cook sculp^t. / Published by Longman , Hurst, Rees, & Orme, Nov^r. 1^st. 1807. Subject size 13.3 x 17.2 cm. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark.
Offer no. 8,885 / EUR  25. (c. US$ 32.) + shipping

– – – The same in engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840, university engraver there). Inscribed: 33. / W. Hogarth inv. / Pl. 7. / R. f. 22.3 x 27.9 cm. – Early impression. – 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. 14,437 / EUR  75. (c. US$ 97.) + shipping

– – – The same by Riepenhausen as before, but on especially buff paper, supposedly about 1850. – Of fine contrast.
Offer no. 7,699 / EUR  50. (c. US$ 65.) + shipping

– – – The same by Riepenhausen as before, but on slightly toned minor paper. – A bit dull.
Offer no. 14,435 / EUR  40. (c. US$ 52.) + shipping

– – – The same in lithography by C. F. Heintz. (1833/36.) Inscribed: 37. / Lith. von C. F. Heintz 1833. 23.5 x 25.7 cm. – Weakly browned. – Old backings of the wide left papermargin. – Title – Faulhans ist von der See zurück und bei einem ganz gemeinen Mädchen – and extensive subtext à la Lichtenberg in German.
Offer no. 7,700 / EUR  30. (c. US$ 39.) + shipping

– – – The same in steel engraving about 1840. 13.5 x 16.1 cm. – With title in German + English, but without verse and marginal emblems.
Offer no. 7,701 / EUR  19. (c. US$ 25.) + shipping

Further single sujets of the set available in several qualities.

„ im Internet habe ich in Ihrem Katalog das vorgenannte Werkverzeichnis … gefunden …

Mit Interesse habe ich auch Ihren offenen Brief an die Herausgeber der Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 24.7.2003 gelesen, zumal ich (bei früherer Gelegenheit) … mir … von der Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung den Vorwurf des ‚Kulturglobalisten‘ gefallen lassen mußte … “

(Herr A. G., 8. Dezember 2003)