Fores's Hunting Sketches

ALKEN, Henry

Published by London: Messrs. Fores, [1859]

About this Item

"A Fine Set of these Beautiful Plates Illustrating Correct and Incorrect Horsemanship in Riding to Hounds" (Dixon) ALKEN, Henry, artist. [Fores's Hunting Sketches: the Right and Wrong Sort, or a Good and Bad Way of Going Across Country]. Messrs. Fores, 1859. First edition. Oblong folio (15 3/4 x 21 3/4 inches; 400 x 552 mm.). Without title as per Schwerdt. Six superb hand-colored aquatint plates heightened with gum arabic, drawn by Henry Alken and engraved by J. Harris. (Image size approximately 10 3/4 x 15 inches; 273 x 381 mm.). Each plate titled "The Right and Wrong Sort / or a Good and Bad style of going across Country." Occasional minimal marginal spotting and staining - still an incredible example of this great rarity. Later nineteenth century half brown calf over faded purple cloth boards ruled in gilt, front cover with rectangular label bordered and lettered in gilt "Hunting Sketches / by/ H. Alken." Smooth spine. With the engraved bookplate of Horst Stutzer. "A fine set of these beautiful plates illustrating correct and incorrect Horsemanship in riding to hounds." (Dixon). "Each plate in this set presents a picture of two fox-hunters taking the same obstacle, one in the right and the other in the wrong style. It was a new idea and is undoubtedly instructive." (Schwerdt). Rare: OCLC/KVK locate just one example in libraries and institutions worldwide: The Huntington Library (CA, US). The only other complete copy to appear at auction over the past one hundred years was the Dixon copy at Anderson Galleries NY, in January 1937. "Henry Alken, senior (1785-1851) was a genius in every respect; his style was admirable and his colouring delightful… [he] was a first-class sportsman who drew from his own experience in field and cover and in fact in every branch of sport excepting hawking. His artistic talents alone could scarcely have produced the charm with which his drawings and prints are imbued, if he had not possessed a practical knowledge of horses and hounds going, harness and craftsmanship, while a gift for composition and a ready appreciation of a comical situation crown his remarkable qualities… It is unfortunate that Alken's value as an artist was not fully recognised sooner, because most of his sets of coloured prints, in brilliant state and in the original wrappers, are now introuvable. Atmospheric dampness and exposure to strong light, combine to ruin framed prints within a very few years; in fact, all those which have been exposed on walls for any length of time will be found to be more or less bleached and to retain very little of their original colouring. Probably the work of no other sporting artist has been imitated so much as that of Henry Alken, senior." (Schwerdt. Hunting, Hawking, Shooting. Volume I, p. 11). "The aquatint process was developed to give the appearance of a water-colour and was used increasingly for over fifty years for large plates of grand views or small book-illustrations and for practically any subject, but it came to be used almost exclusively as the ideal medium for the best result in sporting prints. The sharp outlines and clear colouring gave them a briskness which sport required; horses seem to gallop and jump with greater verve in aquatint, while farm-horses munch more contentedly in mezzotint. Many engravers devoted themselves to the medium and, together with draughtsmen and colourists, enjoyed a steady livelihood with employment from such flourishing publishers as Rudolph Ackermann, Thomas McLean and Mesrrs. Fores. The method of soft-ground etching successfully simulated pencil-drawing and was used extensively for instructional drawing-books, but it was Henry Alken who used it constantly over many years in his albums with their countless cameos of sporting and comic incidents. Lithographs in hand-coloured form, although cheaper to produce, did not replace aquatints in popular esteem. Later in the century, the invention of chromolithography brought a high standard to colour printing. Seller Inventory # 05816

Bibliographic Details

Title: Fores's Hunting Sketches

Publisher: London: Messrs. Fores, [1859]

Edition: 1st Edition