The  AHA!  Event  of  the  Month

Daumier, Honoré (Marseille 1808 – Valmondois 1879). Ceci a tué cela. Looking up to God the lamenting figure points with the left to the oui’s of the ballot box, with the right at the fallen. Lithograph. (1870-71.) Monogrammed, otherwise as above. 24.6 x 19.8 cm.

Delteil 3845, III (of 4) with illustration of the 4^th state; Rümann ills. 109. – Careful impression on better paper without the text on the back and the “Actualité” series title,  before  the black spot within the “oui” above of the ballot box.

Worked  in the great style of the last years, omitting all material and “accusing the wrong of the war in symbolic figures only” (Glaser). – See the complete description.
Offer no. 6,443 / EUR  343. / Export price EUR  326. (c. US$ 528.) + shipping

Harmless  Cause  for  Domestic  Fire  with  Second  Thoughts

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Politician. The politician reading the newspaper with the candle held near to his eyes for better light while not becoming aware of how it burns his hat. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook sculpt. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, July 1^st. 1809., otherwise as before. Image size 17.8 x 14.3 cm.

Cook’s smaller version. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark. – Barely perceptible slight fold in the lower image/platemark.

Published posthumously only the drawing alludes to the circumstances about 1730. The politician – by the way the then known lace dealer Tibson – looking fascinatedly at the continental events reported on in the newspaper while disregarding his own nearest problems indicated by his burning hat.
Offer no. 9,004 / EUR  189. (c. US$ 306.) + shipping

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). Four Prints of an Election. Set of 4 sheets engravings by Thomas Cook (c. 1844 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinx(t). / T. Cook, sculp(t). / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees(,) & Orme(,) (May 1^st. 1807 – Oct. 1^st. 1809). Subject size 14.6-15.5 x 18.8-19.7 cm.

1. Humours of an Election Entertainment. – 2. Canvassing for Votes. – 3. Polling at the Hustings. – 4. Chairing the Members.

Hogarth’s  famous set full of contemporary allusions – belonging to his “most mature creations” (Thieme-Becker) and here in Cook’s small repetition – is

the  best  known  graphic  depiction  of  an  election  of  representatives .

Its origin in the country of parliamentarism gives it a special importance. Because it is together – inspired by events in Oxfordshire during the elections of 1754, published 1755-58 – the portrait of not only corrupt politicians and parties but of a rotten community as such. After all besides the usual feast and gorge documented on all plates as part of every election in Hogarth’s time bribery,

“ … first pursued systematically by Sir Robert Walpole and the Whigs, (was) practiced still far more scandalous than later; so it remained during the second half of the past century and till our days … Because then the possession of a parliamentary place was frequently regarded as a simple trade speculation, as the elected sold … his voice to the government for a sum of money, a sinecure, a post or a delivery, and thereupon could be re-elected by a  rotten  borough, a procedure which was so much easier as the minister Walpole raised such a bribery of the members of the parliament – ‘every man has his price’ – literally to a system of government. Also Hogarth’s plates here give allusions of this ”

(Lichtenberg).

A wag who thinks at this of the independence of the representatives, the obligation to vote for the party line, and the election tickets given away by the parties today. And of the disgust the class of professional politicians causes with today’s voters when Thieme-Becker sum up:

But beyond the fullness of allusions Hogarth puts a special stamp on the abjectness and venal partiality of the whole proceedings. As these plates, too, are together caricatures or parodies of classic – and by this pure and clean – works from the Renaissance and Baroque:

So the first leaf up to the subtext – not included in this version anymore – “He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me” after Leonardo’s Last Supper. Followed by print two with the farmer being bribed by both sides as inversion of The Choice of Hercules. The election itself taking up Tizian’s Presentation of the Virgin while the last leaf, the triumphal march of the elected new member of the parliament even alludes to Alexander the Great in Le Brun’s Victory of Alexander over Darius. Whereby the imperial eagle there had to give way to a goose here. Which by that what it lets fall even anticipates the new member’s contribution to the parliamentary debate.

This embedding in the canon of timeless art giving the set together and contrary to Lichtenberg’s reading that the pictures and their details were be intelligible only from and in their own time

their  own  timelessness  valid  over  the  centuries .

Which is even stressed by Hogarth’ often ambiguous or – depending on time and position – differently interpretable sarcasm. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 8,895 / EUR  375. / Export price EUR  356. (c. US$ 577.) + shipping

– – – The same. Set of 4 sheets steel engravings. C. 1850. Inscribed. 12.9-13.5 x 15.8-16.2 cm.
Offer no. 12,169 / EUR  249. (c. US$ 404.) + shipping

“ Down  with  the  Rump  Parliament ”

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). Burning (the) Rumps at Temple-Barr. Down with the rump parliament. Symbolic burning of the parliament that in 1648 Cromwell cleaned of its presbytarian members as a milestone for his further show of power. It then executed Charles I instead of holding negotiations with him and thus rang in the Puritan republic which itself almost turned into a Cromwell monarchy. Place of the event the London gate Temple Barr. One of the iconoclasts with the convenant of the presbyterian Scots in his hands, another one holding up the banner: Down with the Rumps. Engraving. Inscribed: W. Hogarth inv. delin. et sculp. 27.7 x 51.6 cm.

Nagler 10-11. – HUDIBRAS XI. – 24 lines subtext abbreviated from Samuel Butler’s (1613-1680) poem. – Impression on strong paper from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834) about 1822.

Scenically  rich  plate  to  the  history  of  parliamentarism .

See the complete description.
Offer no. 14,730 / EUR  390. / Export price EUR  371. (c. US$ 601.) + shipping

Raising  the  Spines , and  then  let’s  go

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). (The Porcupine.) Irritated arising its spines and then let’s go. Etching with engraving. (1740.) Inscribed: J. E. R. fec., otherwise in German as before. 18.8 x 15.5 cm. – Thienemann 480. – With the posthumous change of the number of 1824/25.
Ref. no. 14,995 / in stock – not catalogued / request description & offer

John Wilkes Esqr. (editor of the North Briton Journal) + The Times or The Political Blaze caused by the Unlawful “General Warrant against Writers, Printers, and Vendors” of the North Briton. 3 sheets. Engravings, 2 of them by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed (2). 35.3 x 24.5 and 24.5-25.5 x 31.5-32 cm resp.

Wilkes’  (publicist, 1727-1797,
hero “of the even then highly important press”)

“ principal efficacy started, however, (June 1762) with his journal The North Briton (that) was soon recognized by the government (Pitt) as the most dangerous weapon of the opposition” (Lichtenberg). “The Under-Secretary Halifax then issued a warrant violating the habeas corpus act that was not directed at a special person, but against the authors of the paper in general (see above). W. then was imprisoned; the court, however, ordered his release … This result was insofar important for England as a whole as henceforth warrants without name remained abolished. Thereupon W. arranged a reprint of the ‘North Briton’ … ”

(Meyers Konversations-Lexikon 4^th ed. XVI, 648 in great detailness

and  this  still  after  130  years !) .

“ Hogarth portrayed the figure when Wilkes was brought from the Tower to the Court of Common Pleas during the trial that made him to the hero of freedom … The leaf was published (on May 16, 1763) during the excitement Wilkes’ trial stirred up, and thus had such a success that several thousand impressions were sold in the first week ”

(Lichtenberg).

The sitting portrait shows him, little flattering, but true, in determined position with the hat of freedom on top of a long pole. On the little table at his side the notorious No. 45 of the paper tearing to rags the King’s Speech of George III, and the 17^th issue in which Wilkes criticized the 1^st sheet of Hogarth’s Times.

The  2-sheet  TIMES  set  in  this context .

The first, published in 1762, shows the distributor of the North Briton and the Monitor with a visibly emptied push cart documenting the heavy demand amidst the (political) blaze of those days kindled by Pitt’s resignation

“ Really Friedrich (II of Prussia) got into worst crisis by the policy of the new English government under George III and Lord Bute: because England had obtained in overseas what it wanted it needed Friedrich’s no longer. Bute even intended to come to terms with Austria at the expense of Prussia. So Friedrich dispensed with further English support; nevertheless he collected an army of 120,000 men for 1762.

The way out to him opened the sudden death of his grim enemy Elizabeth (1762, daughter of Peter the Great) and the accession to the throne of czar Peter III; then this … made peace with him at 5^th May … ”

(Orthband, Deutsche Geschichte, 1954, pp. 603 f.).

Quite above

in  the  left  dormer-window  as  the  quarters  of  the  poor  journaille

possibly Wilkes himself with a fire-hose directed against the Pitt successor Count Bute as the royal fireman. One of the most concentrated charges by the artist.

The 2^nd sheet from 1763 depicting bouncing topsy-turvydom together with the hated Wilkes – wishful presentation in which government and, for quite personal reasons, see above, Hogarth met – with neck and hands in the stocks under the category Defamation, on his breast a North Briton, the purses empty, pissed at. The triumph of justice

–  freedom , popular  fame , and  big  money  for  the  publisher  –

caused Hogarth as his widow, too, to hold back the already completed plate. It was published only posthumously by Boydell in 1790 and the impression here from the plate possibly reworked by the Royal engraver James Heath about 1822 of correspondingly good quality. – Résumé :

“ We all must take comfort from that, that our century forms an epoch of world history and that we werebeing witnesses of events as the change of things has not caused in such extraordinary manner for a long time. That means much for our curiosity, buth nothing for our fortune ”

(Friedrich II to his favourite sister Henriette, margravine of Bayreuth).

The two Cook versions – in the original format as in none of the later Hogarth editions – in very fine impressions of inevitably wonderful contrast in TIMES I. The background hatching of the Wilkes portrait illustrating that he is behind bars. The first below, the latter on the left trimmed within the platemark. TIMES I slightly marginally foxing. Its backside certain foxing not showing through into the picture. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 12,387 / EUR  657. / Export price EUR  624. (c. US$ 1012.) + shipping

The  Journaille  –  a  (still)  poor  Class

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The distrest Poet. In domestic harmony with the housewife in the centre repairing the wardrobe, both disturbed though not surprised by the milk woman presenting a long and filled up record, now demanding payment. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). 1797. Inscribed: Designed by W. Hogarth / Engraved by T. Cook / Published Octr. 1^st.1797 by G. G. & J. Robinson Paternoster Row London. 36.5 x 41.5 cm.

“ … an old but nevertheless always new theme … on the floor lies a proof of the poet’s merits in the Grubstreet Journal. Thus he is a

co-worker  at  the  daily  press  then  considered  being  very  low  … ” ,

which shall manifest itself sovereignly not even 30 years later (see John Wilkes Esqr. + The Times). – After the original of 1736, distinguished by the painting above the journalist on which Pope thrashes the poet Curll. Otherwise – contrary to all later Hogarth editions – in its original folio format. – With quatrain from Dunciad, Book 1. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 7,542 / EUR  373. / Export price EUR  354. (c. US$ 574.) + shipping

– – – The same. Engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840). Inscribed: W. Hogarth inv & pinx. 1740 / R. d & f. 21.5 x 26.2 cm. – Early toned impression, also after the state of 1740, distinguished by the title and the painting showing “A View of the Gold Mines of Peru” instead of the thrashing scene.
Offer no. 7,733 / EUR  125. (c. US$ 203.) + shipping

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). A Country Inn Yard (or The Election Procession in the Yard). The last travellers enter the overland stagecoach, the postilion already took the driver’s seat, and the landlady acting as postmaster urges for hurry by heavily ringing the bell. In the front a hunched small postilion asks a corpulent gentleman changing coaches here for a gratuity for the previous stage. Engraving. Inscribed: Design’d and Engrav’d by W. Hogarth. — Publish’d According to Act of Parliament. 1747. 22 x 31 cm.

After the painting of 1747. – Independently of the rich postal scene the actual happenings – in addition to the Four Prints of an Election – concern the mockery of a

“ candidate  defeated  in  a  parliamentary  election ”

whose stuffed figure – as already in regard of the Duke of Newcastle on plate 1 of the Election set – is carried round in a procession of the opposing party. This all the more annoyingly as the defeat is caused by formalities, that is the yet nearly missed age of the candidate, and thus was foreseeable. Accordingly unwillingly an agent of the unfortunate – a print of the Act against bribery and corruption in his pocket – foots the bill for the wasted election entertainment to the landlord.

“ The well-known plate … shows with Dickens’ humour a comfortable depiction of rural petty bougoisie ”

(Thieme-Becker XVII, p. 297, 2).

Nagler 30. – Impression on strong paper from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834) about 1822. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 7,803 / EUR  135. (c. US$ 219.) + shipping

– – The same in engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook & Son sc. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, May 1^st. 1808. Subject size 12.2 x 17.1 cm.

Cook’s smaller version, engraved together with his son. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark.
Offer no. 8,941 / EUR  60. (c. US$ 97.) + shipping

– – The same in engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840). Inscribed: W. Hogarth pinx. 1747. / E. Riepenhausen sc. 21.3 x 26.7 cm.

Riepenhausen’s  works  after  Hogarth  ( “very valuable” ) belong to his major work and are partially preferred to those by Hogarth. – In regard of the especially fine, buff paper supposedly an impression for a special edition about 1830. – Margins somewhat age-spotted. Equally the image itself slightly.
Offer no. 7,804 / EUR  118. (c. US$ 191.) + shipping

– – The same in lithography. (1833/36.) Inscribed: Die Landkutsche. 24.7 x 23.7 cm. – Extensive subtext in German.
Offer no. 7,805 / EUR  125. (c. US$ 203.) + shipping

“ The prints arrived today! They are very nice. Thank you for excellent service. Please keep me posted for objects I could be interested in! ”

(Mr. J. R. L., September 12, 2003)