ALKEN, Henry and Rudolph ACKERMANN, publisher (d.1868). [Sporting Scraps.] London: R. Ackermann, [plates dated 1850-61].

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HENRY ALKEN (1784-1851) Henry Alken, undoubtedly the greatest and most talented of Britain's most famous family of sporting artists, was born in Suffolk in 1784. The family originated from Denmark, and due to political troubles left in the middle of the 18th century, arriving in Suffolk where the family spent a short time before moving to London. Samuel Alken (Henry's father or uncle), who had already begun to make a name for himself as an 'engraver in aquatint', was instrumental in Henry's early training as an artist and it wasn't long before the well-known London publishing houses of Thomas McLean, S. and J. Fuller, and Rudolph Ackermann recognised his great potential. Over the years they together produced and published thousands of prints. Part of Alken's great skill in depicting the pastimes of the British sportsman so accurately can be attributed to the fact that he was himself a first class sportsman and could draw on his own experience of field and cover, and a practical knowledge of horses and hounds on the move, twinned with a gift for composition and an appreciation of a comical situation. Alken married in Ipswich in 1809 and had three sons and three daughters.

細節

ALKEN, Henry and Rudolph ACKERMANN, publisher (d.1868). [Sporting Scraps.] London: R. Ackermann, [plates dated 1850-61].

Oblong 4° (215 x 265mm). 32 hand-coloured aquatint plates by J. Harris after Alken, Shayer and Knell. (A few plates lightly spotted.) Green half calf by J. Larkins, gilt spine, red morocco gilt title label on upper cover (edges rubbed).

A VERY RARE series of 32 plates, all after Alken unless otherwise indicated, comprising: Hunting Scraps, 4 plates, 1861; Racing Scraps, 4 plates, 1850; Steeple Chase Scraps, 4 plates, 1850; Coursing Scraps, 4 plates, 1850; Coaching Scraps, 4 plates after W.J. Shayer, 1854; Shooting Scraps, 4 plates, 1850; Fishing Scraps, one plate, 1850; Stag-Hunting Scraps, one plate, 1850; Shooting Scraps, one plate, 1850; Deer-Stalking Scraps, one plate, 1850; Yachting Scraps, 4 plates after W.A. Knell, 1850. Not in Abbey or Tooley. Siltzer p.67; Lane p.80,82 (Racing and Steeple chase Scraps).

注意事項

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拍場告示

Please note that this series of prints are later issues of circa 1910.