PYNE, William Henry

Social Club, The

London: S. and J. Fuller, 1822. Item #06220

Eleven (of Twelve) Superb Hand Colored Aquatint Plates Illustrating
Henry Pyne's The Social Club

PYNE, William Henry. [The Social Club: Consisting of a Series of Stories; and Accompanied by Humourous Prints of each Subject, Engraved and Coloured in Imitation of the Original Drawings, Made Expressly for the Work. The Drawings by W.H. Pyne, Esq.]. London: S. and J. Fuller, 1822.

First edition. Large quarto (9 3/4 x 12 inches; 248 x 305 mm.). Eleven (of twelve) fine hand-colored aquatint plates by Smart & Hunt after W.H. Pyne. Bound without the text. The missing plate is "Obadiah and the Ambassador".

Contemporary quarter red calf over drab boards, smooth spine lettered in gilt "Pyne's Caricatures - 1822". Later dust jacket. A wonderful series of plates with fine hand coloring.

Scarce, with only three copies at auction within the last eighty-six years…

OCLC & KVK locate just one example in libraries and universities worldwide: The British Library (UK).

The plates:

1. Cheap Meat (watermarked J. Whatman 1821)
2. The Horse Without A Head
3. A Thief in the Kirk
4. What Do You Think I Shave For A Drink
5. The Barber of Gosport Who Shaved Gratis (watermarked J. Whatman 1822)
6. Martin O'Rourke, The Wonderful Swimmer
7. Charity Kettering and the Frozen Dish-Clout
8. The Rape of the Roasted Goose
9. Whistling Dalmahoy and the Shads
10. The Two Sailors at the Haunted Inn
11. Old Copper the Waterman and the Duke of Grafton (watermarked J. Whatman 1822)

William Henry Pyne (1769-1843) is primarily known for his work for R. Ackermann especially An "etcher and painter as well as a writer, though perhaps best known through the delightful gossip about art and artists, published under the name of Ephraim Hardcastle... He had an instinct for the different types of the working classes... Pyne received in the course of his long life abundant recognition, both at home and from foreign academies, but as an old man he lived in obscurity and neglect, and died after a long illness in 1843" (Prideaux).

Prideaux, p. 348, Not in Tooley or Abbey.

Price: $6,500.00