![ALKEN, Henry. Ideas, Accidental and Incidental to Hunting and Other Sports; caught in Leicestershire. London: Thomas M'Lean, plates dated 1826-1830 [watermarked 1829]. 2° (252 x 352mm). Letterpress title and 42 hand-coloured etched plates, interleaved and EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with three original pencil drawings by Alken (214 x181mm. & 160 x 235mm) for the plates entitled 'Thrown ... Off', 'Fording the Lea', 'I have no Idea what could induce me to follow you', each pasted onto a blank leaf, unsigned. (Slight browning and dust-soiling to drawings, light soiling and spotting of plate margins.) Contemporary half roan over cloth with gilt lettering-piece on upper cover, gilt spine compartments, gilt edges (extremities rubbed, covers scuffed, some loss of cloth on upper cover). Provenance: Stansfeld Manor House (bookplate) -- Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (bookplate; his sale, Christie's London, 26-27 January 2006, lot 619).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2012/CSK/2012_CSK_04354_0086_000(alken_henry_ideas_accidental_and_incidental_to_hunting_and_other_sport110624).jpg?w=1)
Details
ALKEN, Henry. Ideas, Accidental and Incidental to Hunting and Other Sports; caught in Leicestershire. London: Thomas M'Lean, plates dated 1826-1830 [watermarked 1829]. 2° (252 x 352mm). Letterpress title and 42 hand-coloured etched plates, interleaved and EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with three original pencil drawings by Alken (214 x181mm. & 160 x 235mm) for the plates entitled 'Thrown ... Off', 'Fording the Lea', 'I have no Idea what could induce me to follow you', each pasted onto a blank leaf, unsigned. (Slight browning and dust-soiling to drawings, light soiling and spotting of plate margins.) Contemporary half roan over cloth with gilt lettering-piece on upper cover, gilt spine compartments, gilt edges (extremities rubbed, covers scuffed, some loss of cloth on upper cover). Provenance: Stansfeld Manor House (bookplate) -- Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (bookplate; his sale, Christie's London, 26-27 January 2006, lot 619).
THE RARE FIRST ISSUE, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH THREE OF ALKEN'S ORIGINAL DRAWINGS. Alken's soft-ground etchings, drawn from seven separate works, show imminent dangers, the moment of impact and the sometimes cruel aftermath of accidents to man and horse. As Schwerdt states, 'the draftsmanship is good, the colouring vivid, and the inscriptions on the plates, humorous'. The Dixon catalogue of 1937 included two pencil drawings for 'Ideas' as lot 83. This copy also contains a watercolour by a copyist of the plate 'Getting on with a good chance of coming off'. Mellon/Snelgrove 104; Schwerdt I p. 17; Siltzer p. 72; Tooley 36.
THE RARE FIRST ISSUE, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH THREE OF ALKEN'S ORIGINAL DRAWINGS. Alken's soft-ground etchings, drawn from seven separate works, show imminent dangers, the moment of impact and the sometimes cruel aftermath of accidents to man and horse. As Schwerdt states, 'the draftsmanship is good, the colouring vivid, and the inscriptions on the plates, humorous'. The Dixon catalogue of 1937 included two pencil drawings for 'Ideas' as lot 83. This copy also contains a watercolour by a copyist of the plate 'Getting on with a good chance of coming off'. Mellon/Snelgrove 104; Schwerdt I p. 17; Siltzer p. 72; Tooley 36.