The  Wedding  Serenade

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Industrious Prentice out of his Time and Married to his Master’s Daughter. The guilds of London serenade the newly wed couple and the partner of now West + Goodchild. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Designed by W^m. Hogarth / Plate 6 / Engraved by T. Cook / Published by T. Cook. Islington; and G. G. & J. Robinsons. Pater-noster Row. February 1^st. 1796. 30.2 x 36.5 cm.

Industry & Idleness VI. – Marvellous impression on buff paper and – contrary to all later Hogarth editions – in the original size. – Cook “made a name for himself as Hogarth engraver, too” (Thieme-Becker). – Weak waterstreak. The foxing of the wide papermargin also affecting the platemark. The backside foxing not penetrating the image.

“ The young couple stood up and receives the congratulations at a cup of chocolate. The tailor is the spokesman for all drummers and musicians … It is surely one of the butchers who congratulate with the bones on the chopper … The old servant of the house hands out freely the pieces of dinner … ”

(subtext of a lithograph).

The master’s famous, most popular suite, showing by example of two apprentices in a weaving mill as one of the main branches of industry in his days the chances of their life as well as the temptations detrimental to their career :

Calculated  for  the  use  &  Instruction  of  youth
w(h)erein  every  thing  necessary  to  be  known  was  to  be  made
as  intelligible  as  possible

(Hogarth in his Autobiographical Notes).

“ The scenes should be as easily intelligible as possible for which the engravings had not to be worked in all fineness. It was rather important to keep costs low so that even apprentices could buy these sheets. Hogarth designed a frame-like border around each picture – supposedly he assumed that the boys would pin up these engravings directly at the wall. In this border below of every scene he had added a characteristic verse from the Bible to the idle and (or) industrious apprentice … at top on the one hand a cat-o-’nine-tails, a pair of fetters, and a halter as emblems of the tragic end of the idle apprentice and on the other hand golden chain, sword and mace as hints to the career of the industrious one ”

(Bachofen-Moser, William Hogarth in the Art Gallery Zurich, 1983, p. 98).
Offer no. 7,532 / EUR  271. / Export price EUR  257. (c. US$ 406.) + shipping

– – – – The same. 30.2 x 36.5 cm. – At the top trimmed to platemark for a few cm. Upper right restored tear. – At the back old possession note.
Offer no. 12,143 / EUR  95. (c. US$ 150.) + shipping

– – – The same in Hogarth’s own etching in an impression from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834, “earned applause early”, Nagler) about 1822 (“Even these impressions became relatively rare today though”, Art Gallery Esslingen 1970; and Meyers Konv.-Lex., 4^th ed., VIII [1888], 625: “A fine edition”). Inscribed: Design’d & Engrav’d by W^m. Hogarth. / Plate 6. / Publish’d according to Act of Parliament Sep^br. 30. 1747. 26.8 x 34.9 cm.

Illustration Hogarth Catalogue Zurich, 1983, 58. – On wide-margined buff paper.
Offer no. 7,694 / EUR  95. (c. US$ 150.) + shipping

– – – The same in Cook’s smaller repetition, but without verse and marginal emblems and with the series title as subtext. Inscribed: Pl. VI. / Hogarth pinx^t. / T. Cook sculp^t. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme. Sep^r. 1^st. 1807. Subject size 13.7 x 16.9 cm. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark.
Offer no. 8,884 / EUR  48. (c. US$ 76.) + shipping

– – – The same in engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840, university engraver there). Inscribed: 32. / W. Hogarth inv. & pinx. / Pl. 6. / Riepenhausen del & fec. 22.8 x 28.1 cm. – Impression on slightly toned minor paper. – Riepenhausen’s engravings after Hogarth (“very estimable”, Nagler) belong to his chief work and are partly even preferred to Hogarth’s own engravings.
Offer no. 9,523 / EUR  66. (c. US$ 104.) + shipping

– – – The same by Riepenhausen as before, but on especially buff paper, supposedly about 1850.
Offer no. 7,695 / EUR  81. (c. US$ 128.) + shipping

– – – The same in lithography. (1833/36.) Inscribed: 24. 21.5 x 15.6 cm. – Title – Der fleißige Lehrbursche ist losgesprochen und mit des Meisters Tochter verheirathet – and extensive subtext à la Lichtenberg in German.
Offer no. 7,696 / EUR  95. (c. US$ 150.) + shipping

– – – The same in steel engraving about 1840. 13 x 16 cm. – With title in German + English, but without verse and marginal emblems.
Offer no. 7,697 / EUR  40. (c. US$ 63.) + shipping

Further single sujets of the set available in several qualities.

“ … I was digging and I found you. I needed to tell you that your collection for whatever reason has brought tears to my eyes. Thank you … I’m not a collector, or I haven’t known myself to be … I was going to sell this (sheet), but I just may have discovered that I’m to keep this for whatever reason. Have you made a collector out of me … For all your devotion, hardwork … I thank you ”

(Mrs. D. H., June 17, 2002)