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Staggeringly Rare
Only Four Copies at Auction Since 1935
[BROWNE, H.K.]. PHIZ. A Run with the Stag-Hounds. London: Messrs. Fores,1863.
First edition. Oblong folio (14 5/8 x 21 1/4 in; 372 x 484 mm). Twelve hand-colored lithographed plates, each dated May 13, 1863 and inscribed in print, "Proof." Printed by M. & N. Hanhart.
Publisher's original printed tan boards rebacked and corned in tawny crushed levant morocco. Lower corner on front board a little creased, but still an excellent copy, internally bright and clean. Small Armorial bookplate of Bibliotheque Du Compte Greffulhe on front pastedown.
From the library of the renowned collector Le Compte Du Greffulhe (Henry Jules Charles Emmanuel Greffulhe) December 25 1848 - 31 March 1932. A French aristocrat who lived in the Mansion Greffulhe in Paris. From September to January he would spend most of his time in the family castle of Bois-Boudran, near Melun (Seine-et-Marne) where he devoted most of his time to hunting with hounds and the gun. The high society of the time pronounced his name as Greffeuille.
Extremely rare, with ABPC recording only four copies at auction since 1935. OCLC notes only three copies in library holdings worldwide, with two at Harvard and one at the National Sporting Library.
"Vigorous and spirited" (Hardie, p. 219).
Renowned for his illustrations for novels by Charles Dickens, Hablot Knight Browne [pseud. Phiz] (18151882) "remained prodigiously productive throughout the 1840s and 1850s, his greatest decades...His output was enormous - about 3660 images over his lifetime - and Phiz became a household familiar...From 1859 to 1867 he issued around 440 more images, but changes in the visual tastes of readers, in reproductive techniques for book illustration, and in the kind of books publishers issued (more cheap, un-illustrated fiction) all worked against Browne's talent...He also indulged his love for drawing horses in sporting journals such as the New Sporting Magazine, the Great Gun, and the Sporting Times... Browne's brilliance as an illustrator did not satisfy him. He never shed the idea that he was first and foremost a fine artist" (Oxford Online DNB).
The Plates:
1. A Short Cut to the Meet.
2. Uncarting the Deer.
3. "Hold hard! - Let the Hounds Go First if You Please Gentleman."
4. Hard Riders.
5. Something Wrong as Usual - Lost Shoes, Stirrups, Girths, &c.
6. Going the Pace.
7. A Welcome Check - Pray Have You Seen the Deer, Ladies?
8. Thrown Out - Have You Seen the Hounds, You Sir? Confound That Fellow. He's as Deaf as a Post.
9. The Sanctuary.
10. The Run of the Season.
11. Hard Pressed.
12. The Take.
Schwerdt I, p. 84.
Price: $0
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