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Rowlandson at His Zenith The English Dance of Death & The Dance of Life - The Great Ackermann Color-Plate Masterpieces [ROWLANDSON, Thomas, illustrator]. [COMBE, William]. The English Dance of Death, from the Designs of Thomas Rowlandson, with Metrical Illustrations, by the Author of "Doctor Syntax." London: Printed by J. Diggens; Published at R. Ackermann's Repository of Arts, 1815-1816. [Together with:] The Dance of Life, A Poem, by the Author of "Doctor Syntax;" Illustrated with Coloured Engravings, by Thomas Rowlandson. London: Published by R. Ackermann, Repository of Arts, 1817. First editions. Two works in three octavo volumes (9 x 5 5/8 inches; 229 x 144 mm.). vii, [1, blank], [4], 295, [1, printer's imprint]; [6], 299, [1, blank]; [2], ii, ii, 285, [1, blank], [1, "Advertisement"], [1, blank] pp. The English Dance of Death with seventy-three hand-colored aquatint plates (thirty-seven in Volume I and thirty-six in Volume II, including frontispieces), and an engraved title with hand-colored aquatint vignette. The Dance of Life with twenty-six hand-colored aquatint plates (including frontispiece and engraved title). Text watermarked 1815 (Dance of Death) and 1817 (Dance of Life). Several plates in The English Dance of Death expertly inlaid to size at the time of binding (plates opposite pp. 15, 29, 37, 181, 185, 205, 216 in Volume I; plates opposite pp. 95, 106, 250, and 259 in Volume II). Minor, neatly repaired marginal tears as noted: NN2 (Vol. I), II1 and NN3 (Vol. II), and A3 and N1 (Dance of Life). Uniformly bound ca. 1920 by L. Broca for C.E. Lauriat Co. (stamp-signed on the verso of the front free endpaper) in full dark green straight-grain morocco. Covers with gilt double fillet borders, spines paneled and lettered in gilt, gilt board edges and turn-ins, all edges gilt. A very nice, well-presented set. Housed together in the original green cloth slipcase (of the period of binding), lined with pink felt. A cornerstone of English caricature and one of the great achievements of the Ackermann color-plate tradition, The English Dance of Death stands among Thomas Rowlandson's most ambitious and enduring works. Conceived in collaboration with William Combe, the series transforms the medieval danse macabre into a brilliantly modern satire of Regency society, in which Death - rendered with macabre wit and theatrical flair - intrudes upon every rank and profession. Rowlandson's hand-colored aquatints are at once exuberant and incisive: scenes of gambling houses, military life, medical practice, and fashionable excess unfold with comic vitality, while the skeletal protagonist serves as both moral commentator and mischievous agent of chaos. The plates rank among the finest achievements of English color-plate book illustration, fully exploiting the luminous possibilities of the aquatint medium perfected under Rudolph Ackermann's direction. Issued the following year, The Dance of Life serves as a complementary pendant - less macabre, but equally observant - charting the stages, follies, and vanities of human existence with the same union of pictorial brilliance and satirical verse. Together, the two works form a coherent meditation on mortality and society, balancing humor with moral reflection in a manner entirely characteristic of the Regency imagination. Both titles were originally issued in monthly parts, and complete sets - especially with full contemporary hand-coloring - remain highly desirable. As M. Dorothy George and later authorities have emphasized, these works occupy a central position in the canon of English graphic satire. As Tooley memorably observed, The English Dance of Death is "indispensable to any Rowlandson collection," and indeed stands as one of the essential pillars of any serious color-plate library. The present example, handsomely bound and complete, offers an especially attractive and cohesive presentation of these two great companion works. Abbey, Life, 263 and 264.; Grolier, Rowlandson, 32 and 38;
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