An Old Sport
Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). Pit Ticket – Royal Sport. The betting party of all classes at the cock-fight. Etching. Inscribed: Design’d and Engrav’d by Willm. Hogarth / Publish’d according to Act of Parliament Nov. 5th 1759. 32 x 38.7 cm.
Illustration Hogarth Catalogue Zurich, 1983, 79. – Harmonic wide-margined impression, perhaps from the complete edition published by Boydell 1790-1809. Weak water streak in the wide white margin. There, too, some backed tears.
Centre of the cramped party is the “Blind Lord” seen on all London betting events of those years, here, too, backing freely. “Whereas on the other side … a better who looses in a poor mood … At the side of the butcher betting with his lordship a person sits that records the different bets without paying attention to the fighting animals. Then follows an official of the cockpit … who observes the hot fight of the two animals with the looks of a seasoned veteran … Sideward … (a) player who throws a coin into the arena to challenge for a bet. The latter is … accepted by a jockey sitting on the opposite side pointing with his finger at it … A last betting person … is introduced by his shadow only that is thrown onto the battle-ground. It is the shadow of an unlucky one who could not pay for a lost bet. According to the laws of the cockpit such one is put into a basket and drawn up to the ceiling. In this pitiful position the punished one is carried away by the common passion. He offers his watch for betting …” (Lichtenberg).
Offer no. 6,943 / EUR 343. / export price EUR 326. (c. US$ 455.) + shipping
– – – – The same in a wide-margined impression from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834) about 1822 (“Even these impressions became relatively rare today though”, Art Gallery Esslingen 1970; and Meyers Konv.-Lex., 4th ed., VIII [1888], 625: “A fine edition”, esteemed also already by contemporary collectors of the rank of for instance an A. T. Stewart [Catalog of the Stewart Collection, New York 1887, 1221, “fine plates”]).
Offer no. 6,944 / EUR 322. / export price EUR 306. (c. US$ 427.) + shipping
– – – The same in engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook sculpt. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, Jany. 1st. 1808. Subject size 14.2 x 17.1 cm. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark. – Cook’s smaller repetition of the sujet.
Offer no. 8,991 / EUR 86. (c. US$ 120.) + shipping
– – – The same in engraving by Carl Heinrich Rahl (Hoffenheim 1779 – Vienna 1843). (1818/23.) Inscribed: 45. 22.4 x 28.7 cm. – Lower margin trimmed to platemark, but negligible.
Offer no. 6,945 / EUR 118. (c. US$ 165.) + shipping
– – – The same in engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840, university engraver there). Inscribed: 45 / W. Hogarth inv. / R. f. 23 x 29.7 cm. – Early toned impression. – Riepenhausen’s engravings after Hogarth (“very estimable”, Nagler) belong to his chief work and not least for their side-correctness they are partly even preferred to Hogarth’s own engravings.
Offer no. 6,952 / EUR 189. (c. US$ 264.) + shipping
– – – The same by Riepenhausen as before, but on slightly toned minor paper.
Offer no. 6,953 / EUR 148. (c. US$ 206.) + shipping
– – – The same by Riepenhausen as before, but on especially buff paper, supposedly about 1850.
Offer no. 6,946 / EUR 176. (c. US$ 246.) + shipping
– – – The same in lithography by C. C. Böhme. (1833/36.) Inscribed: C. C. Böhme litho. / Ein Hahnen Gefecht. 26.8 x 23.7 cm. – Upper margin partly trimmed to the image’s edge. – With detailed subtext of 19 lines à la Lichtenberg in German.
Offer no. 7,473 / EUR 189. (c. US$ 264.) + shipping
– – – The same in steel engraving about 1840. Inscribed: Das Hahnen-Gefecht. / The Cock Pit. 13.2 x 14.8 cm.
Offer no. 7,743 / EUR 50. (c. US$ 70.) + shipping
„ Sehr geehrter Herr Niemeyer, Grüß Gott,
Ihre Graphiksendung ist wohlbehalten angekommen. Ich habe mich sehr gefreut über die Schönheit der Blätter und ihren ausgezeichneten Erhaltungszustand. Vielen herzlichen Dank. Mit diesen Blättern kann ich in den entsprechenden Folgen einige schmerzliche Lücken schließen … Nachdem ich Kassensturz gemacht habe, der günstig ausgefallen ist, folgt hier eine weitere Bestellung … Ich hoffe, dass die Blätter nicht inzwischen verkauft wurden …
Mit freundlichen Grüßen nach Padingbüttel “
(Herr W. G., 3. August 2009)