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$ 572.) + 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$ 400.) + 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$ 217.) + 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$ 96.) + 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$ 190.) + 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$ 201.) + 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$ 596.) + 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$ 304.) + shipping

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$ 524.) + shipping

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