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You Shall See My Stud. Alken has made me drawings of them, all illustrative of their particular excellencies. London: R. Ackermann, 1831. [Title watermarked Whatman 1832].
Details
ALKEN, Henry Thomas (1785-1851)
You Shall See My Stud. Alken has made me drawings of them, all illustrative of their particular excellencies. London: R. Ackermann, 1831. [Title watermarked Whatman 1832].
An uncommon Alken work in original wraps with plates uncut. Although many of Alken’s horses were ‘will nots’, likely to smash through fences or refuse jumps, this series shows horses and riders working in unison and timing their movements perfectly. As one of the couplets on the title-page states, this is how ‘the thing should be done,/As if the Horse and Man were all one – .’ The title then goes on to list the horses in the order they appear on the plates and to praise their different abilities. Whether these were actual horses which Alken rode, or whether the stud was the product of his imagination, is difficult to know. Bobins IV, 1382; Siltzer p.62 (under the title 'Difficulties’) noting the work was reissued in 1836.
Oblong folio (280 x 384mm). Engraved title and 6 etched plates, coloured by a contemporary hand and with deckle edges. Original buff printed wrappers, front wrapper with date, title and imprint, price in manuscript, back wrapper with publisher’s advertisements; mid-20th-century light brown quarter morocco slipcase and chemise. Provenance: Joel Spitz (bookplate; purchased at Parke Bernet, 1953; sold in these rooms 27 May 2015, lot 116).
You Shall See My Stud. Alken has made me drawings of them, all illustrative of their particular excellencies. London: R. Ackermann, 1831. [Title watermarked Whatman 1832].
An uncommon Alken work in original wraps with plates uncut. Although many of Alken’s horses were ‘will nots’, likely to smash through fences or refuse jumps, this series shows horses and riders working in unison and timing their movements perfectly. As one of the couplets on the title-page states, this is how ‘the thing should be done,/As if the Horse and Man were all one – .’ The title then goes on to list the horses in the order they appear on the plates and to praise their different abilities. Whether these were actual horses which Alken rode, or whether the stud was the product of his imagination, is difficult to know. Bobins IV, 1382; Siltzer p.62 (under the title 'Difficulties’) noting the work was reissued in 1836.
Oblong folio (280 x 384mm). Engraved title and 6 etched plates, coloured by a contemporary hand and with deckle edges. Original buff printed wrappers, front wrapper with date, title and imprint, price in manuscript, back wrapper with publisher’s advertisements; mid-20th-century light brown quarter morocco slipcase and chemise. Provenance: Joel Spitz (bookplate; purchased at Parke Bernet, 1953; sold in these rooms 27 May 2015, lot 116).
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