Author: ALKEN, Henry
Title: Touch at the Fine Arts, A.
Description: London: Thomas M’Lean, 1824. Artists Jargon Satirically Defined Rare in the Original Boards ALKEN, Henry. A Touch at the Fine Arts: Illustrated by Twelve Plates, with Descriptions by Henry Alken. London: Published by Thomas M’Lean, Repository of Wit and Humour, 1824. First edition. Quarto (10 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches; 257 x 171 mm.). [30], [2, advertisements, verso blank] pp. Twelve hand-colored soft-ground etchings, all with original tissue guards. Each plate with a leaf of descriptive letterpress. Complete with the half-title and the leaf of advertisements. Very small lower marginal stain (1/4 x 5/8 inch) affecting first five leaves of text but not affecting plates. Publisher's red printed boards expertly rebacked and re-cornered in red roan. Smooth spine ruled and horizontally lettered in gilt. Early ink inscription "Mrs. Ablett / Llanbedr Hall / 1850" on verso of front free endpaper. An excellent copy. “A Touch at the Fine Arts-is, according to the preface, ‘an attempt to elucidate, by graphic delineations, a variety of terms generally and perhaps exclusively made use of by artists, amateurs, connoisseurs, virtuosos, and the like. Long, indeed, has a generous public been, doubtless, puzzled in the endeavour to discover some ray of meaning in those glowing, brilliant and forcible phrases, which the critical catalogues, Catalogues Raisonnées, etc. of the day are woefully burthened with.’ It is a cheap kind of humour at the best. To take two of the most deserving subjects—‘A Moving Effect; the Execution rapid,’ is represented by a runaway coach, with expressions of the utmost horror in the faces and attitudes of the occupants; ‘A Striking Effect, the handling by no means good or pleasant to the eye,’ is illustrated by a fracas between two returning roisterers and some night-watchmen. In these and in plate 2, a prison-scene depicting ‘An unpleasant effect, but the Keeping is Good,’ Alken shows genuine power as a draughtsman, and infuses his work with a character lacking elsewhere. The last plate, indeed, might almost be a coloured lithograph from the hand of Daumier. All twelve plates, it should be said, are soft-ground etchings, with colour applied by hand” (Martin Hardie). Joseph Ablett (d. 1848), descended from a long-established Suffolk yeoman family, purchased Llanbedr Hall, Denbighshire in 1804, and subsequently also nearby estates at Plas Coch and Bathafarn (in 1831). He seems to have built a new house at Llanbedr which was remodeled later, and also to have altered Bathafarn. At his death his estates passed to a cousin, John Jesse, a Manchester surgeon. The Plates: 1. Frontispiece. All Effect—The Subject far from good, but Rich 2. —An Imposing Effect 3. Unpleasant in Effect—but the keeping is Good 4. A Moving Effect—the Execution Rapid 5. A Striking Effect—The handling by no means good, or pleasant to the eye 6. A Forcible Effect 7. A Sudden Effect 8. A surprising Effect—but no Execution 9. A Very Warm Effect 10. A powerful Effect—but the subject rather hurried 11. A Spirited Effect—but no order kept in the grouping of the Figures 12. A very Brilliant Effect Martin Hardie, pp. 183-184 and 319. Siltzer, p. 71. Tooley 58. Not in Abbey. .
Keywords: Color-Plate Books Caricatures Nineteenth-Century Literature English Caricature
See more books from our catalog: English Literature
Title: Touch at the Fine Arts, A.
Description: London: Thomas M’Lean, 1824. Artists Jargon Satirically Defined Rare in the Original Boards ALKEN, Henry. A Touch at the Fine Arts: Illustrated by Twelve Plates, with Descriptions by Henry Alken. London: Published by Thomas M’Lean, Repository of Wit and Humour, 1824. First edition. Quarto (10 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches; 257 x 171 mm.). [30], [2, advertisements, verso blank] pp. Twelve hand-colored soft-ground etchings, all with original tissue guards. Each plate with a leaf of descriptive letterpress. Complete with the half-title and the leaf of advertisements. Very small lower marginal stain (1/4 x 5/8 inch) affecting first five leaves of text but not affecting plates. Publisher's red printed boards expertly rebacked and re-cornered in red roan. Smooth spine ruled and horizontally lettered in gilt. Early ink inscription "Mrs. Ablett / Llanbedr Hall / 1850" on verso of front free endpaper. An excellent copy. “A Touch at the Fine Arts-is, according to the preface, ‘an attempt to elucidate, by graphic delineations, a variety of terms generally and perhaps exclusively made use of by artists, amateurs, connoisseurs, virtuosos, and the like. Long, indeed, has a generous public been, doubtless, puzzled in the endeavour to discover some ray of meaning in those glowing, brilliant and forcible phrases, which the critical catalogues, Catalogues Raisonnées, etc. of the day are woefully burthened with.’ It is a cheap kind of humour at the best. To take two of the most deserving subjects—‘A Moving Effect; the Execution rapid,’ is represented by a runaway coach, with expressions of the utmost horror in the faces and attitudes of the occupants; ‘A Striking Effect, the handling by no means good or pleasant to the eye,’ is illustrated by a fracas between two returning roisterers and some night-watchmen. In these and in plate 2, a prison-scene depicting ‘An unpleasant effect, but the Keeping is Good,’ Alken shows genuine power as a draughtsman, and infuses his work with a character lacking elsewhere. The last plate, indeed, might almost be a coloured lithograph from the hand of Daumier. All twelve plates, it should be said, are soft-ground etchings, with colour applied by hand” (Martin Hardie). Joseph Ablett (d. 1848), descended from a long-established Suffolk yeoman family, purchased Llanbedr Hall, Denbighshire in 1804, and subsequently also nearby estates at Plas Coch and Bathafarn (in 1831). He seems to have built a new house at Llanbedr which was remodeled later, and also to have altered Bathafarn. At his death his estates passed to a cousin, John Jesse, a Manchester surgeon. The Plates: 1. Frontispiece. All Effect—The Subject far from good, but Rich 2. —An Imposing Effect 3. Unpleasant in Effect—but the keeping is Good 4. A Moving Effect—the Execution Rapid 5. A Striking Effect—The handling by no means good, or pleasant to the eye 6. A Forcible Effect 7. A Sudden Effect 8. A surprising Effect—but no Execution 9. A Very Warm Effect 10. A powerful Effect—but the subject rather hurried 11. A Spirited Effect—but no order kept in the grouping of the Figures 12. A very Brilliant Effect Martin Hardie, pp. 183-184 and 319. Siltzer, p. 71. Tooley 58. Not in Abbey. .
Keywords: Color-Plate Books Caricatures Nineteenth-Century Literature English Caricature
Price: US$ 1500.00 Seller: David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)
- Book number: 05913
- Book number: 05913
See more books from our catalog: English Literature