For  Garrick’s  Own  Play

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Farmer’s Return. The farmer with smoking pipe at the fireplace being comforted by his family while the housewife pours the beer onto the floor instead of the mug held out to her. Engraving by James Basire I (1730 London 1802). Inscribed: W^m. Hogarth delin. / James Basire. Sculp., title as before. 25.5 x 21.8 cm.

“ Of the three engravers of this name the eldest is … the most superior … Correct drawing and true control of the graver are said to his praise ”

(Thieme-Becker). – Worked as frontispiece for the little play of the legendary Shakespeare actor  Garrick. – Impression on buff paper from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath 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”).
Offer no. 7,853 / EUR  118. (c. US$ 190.) + shipping

– – – The same in engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinx^t. / T. Cook sculp^t. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, March 1^st. 1807., title as above. Subject size 17.2 x 14.1 cm.

Cook “made a name for himself as Hogarth engraver, too, whose complete work he has engraved in copy” (Thieme-Becker) and whose original format he maintained contrary to all later Hogarth editions in his first, earlier edition. For some sheets not published by Hogarth himself Cook became their first engraver, just as he also gained approval of a contemporary connoisseur as Maximilian Speck von Sternburg. Here though present in Cook’s popular later, smaller version. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark which is weakly brown-spotted in the outer parts of 2.5 sides.
Offer no. 8,997 / EUR  81. (c. US$ 130.) + shipping

„ herzlichen Dank für die rasche und ausführliche Behandlung meiner Anfrage. Ich bestelle hiermit beide o. a. Gebote … bin ich auch mit Vorauszahlung einverstanden “

(Frau R. R., 20. November 2002)