Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Idle ‘Prentice Executed at Tyburn. Found guilty of murder the former weaver’s apprentice Tom Idle is brought to the gallows. Behind the sheriff’s guard equipped with pikes. An itinerant preacher of the Methodists offers the last comfort, the last support he finds in his coffin. Otherwise rich fair scenery with the people enjoying themselves and drinking brandy. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Design’d by W. Hogarth. / Plate 11. / Engraved by T. Cook. / Published by T. Cook N^o. 11 Little Britain & G. G. I. Robinson N^o. 25 Pater-noster Row July 1^st. 1795. 28.5 x 42.3 cm.

Industry & Idleness XI. – Very fine impression on buff paper. In its 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).

“ The hangman already waits, merrily smoking his pipe … and a Methodist with Westley’s (Wesley’s) comfort book gives hell to the poor one as far as possible … But what a gallows festival we see there … ”

(subtext of a lithograph).

The permanent gallows at Tyburn by the way has its counterpart in a tripod above of Dr. Pillule’s – Dr. Misaubin’s – mummies cabinet as altogether announcers of the coming mischief for Earl Squanderfield sitting in front of them in The Visit to the Quack Doctor from Marriage à la Mode. Just as regardless of the coffin at his back Tom Idle is determined to the welfare of the anatomy, but not to the silence of the grave like his colleague Tom Nero from Four Stages of Cruelty. The two skeletons of the marginal emblems already refer to this.

At the right side of the picture finally the gingerbread seller Tiddy-Doll Ford from Mayfair (d. 1752) as “a lasting memorial”, whom 1806, after the battle of Austerlitz, James Gillray took up as Napoleon baking gingerbread kings (see Gillray Catalogue Hanover 1986, no. 159 + colour ills. p. 170).

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. 7,537 / EUR  424. / export price EUR  403. (c. US$ 522.) + 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 11 / Publish’d according to Act of Parliam^t. Sep. 30. 1747. 27.5 x 40.4 cm.

Illustration Hogarth Catalogue Zurich, 1983, 63. – On wide-margined buff paper.
Offer no. 7,711 / EUR  176. (c. US$ 228.) + shipping

– – – The same in Cook’s smaller repetition, but without verse and marginal emblems and with the series title as subtext. Inscribed: Pl. XI. / Hogarth pinx^t. / T. Cook sculp^t. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, March 1^st. 1809. Subject size 12.5 x 18.8 cm. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark.
Offer no. 8,889 / EUR  91. (c. US$ 118.) + shipping

– – – The same in engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840, university engraver there). Inscribed: 37. / W. Hogarth inv. pinx. / Pl. 11. / R. d. & sc. 24 x 36.2 cm. – Early toned 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. 7,712 / EUR  189. (c. US$ 245.) + shipping

– – – The same by Riepenhausen as before, but on slightly toned minor paper.
Offer no. 7,713 / EUR  146. (c. US$ 189.) + shipping

– – – The same by Riepenhausen as before, but on especially buff paper, supposedly about 1850. – Trimmed to the left platemark.
Offer no. 7,714 / EUR  176. (c. US$ 228.) + shipping

– – – The same in lithography by C. C. Böhme. (1833/36.) Inscribed: 41. / C. C. Böhme lithogr. 24 x 32.5 cm. – On slightly toned paper. – Title – Faulhans wird in Tyburn gehängt – and extensive subtext à la Lichtenberg in German.
Offer no. 7,715 / EUR  146. (c. US$ 189.) + shipping

– – – The same in steel engraving about 1840. 12 x 13.2 cm. – With title in German + English, but without verse and marginal emblems.
Offer no. 7,716 / EUR  40. (c. US$ 52.) + shipping

Further single sujets of the set available in several qualities.

“ … I was digging and I found you. I needed to tell you that your collection for whatever reason has brought tears to my eyes. Thank you … I’m not a collector, or I haven’t known myself to be … I was going to sell this (sheet), but I just may have discovered that I’m to keep this for whatever reason. Have you made a collector out of me … For all your devotion, hardwork … I thank you ”

(Mrs. D. H., June 17, 2002)