ROWLANDSON, Thomas; ANGELO, Henry

Hungarian & Highland Broad Sword [together with] the original pen, ink and watercolor for the nineteenth plate

London: H. Angelo, 1799. Item #06240

Thomas Rowlandson's Magnificent Hungarian & Highland Broad Sword
First Edition in Contemporary Red Morocco
With the Rare Additional “Guards” Plate
Together with Rowlandson's Original Watercolor for One of the Published Plates

ROWLANDSON, Thomas, illustrator. ANGELO, Henry. Hungarian & Highland Broad Sword. Twenty Four Plates, designed and etched by T. Rowlandson, under the Direction of Messrs. H. Angelo and Son, Fencing Masters to the Light Horse Volunteers of London and Westminster dedicated to Colonel Herries. London: Published by H. Angelo, February 12, 1799.

First edition. Oblong folio (11 7/8 x 16 inches; 302 x 406 mm.). iii, [1, blank] pp. Pictorial hand-colored aquatint title-page and twenty-three hand-colored aquatint plates, together with the rare additional hand-colored aquatint plate The Guards of the Highland Broadsword as taught by Mr. H. Angelo's Academy, dated January 20, 1799 - twenty-five hand-colored aquatints in all, including the title-page. The regular plates bear the imprint date September 1, 1798, with the exceptions noted below; several are watermarked “J. Whatman 1794.” Bound without the three-page list of subscribers.

Our photographic record confirms the handsome contemporary binding, title and attractive coloring of the plates.

Small 3/4 inch tear to upper blank margin of plate 8; small two-inch tear to lower blank margin of plate 11, just touching the plate border; small 7/8 inch tear to lower blank margin of plate 23; and small one-inch tear to lower blank margin of plate 25, all neatly repaired. Plate 24 approximately 3/8 inch short at lower margin.

Bound ca. 1800 in full red straight-grain morocco, covers decoratively bordered in gilt, smooth spine elaborately decorated in gilt with circular ornaments, gilt board edges, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Spine tips and extremities slightly rubbed.

A near fine and exceptionally desirable copy in a handsome contemporary binding, complete with the rare additional “Guards” plate and accompanied by Thomas Rowlandson's original pen, ink and watercolor design for the nineteenth plate.

The separately issued additional plate, The Guards of the Highland Broadsword as taught by Mr. H. Angelo's Academy, depicts ten individual figures demonstrating the principal guards and lessons of Highland broadsword fencing, arranged around explanatory text. Dated January 20, 1799, it was published in addition to the normal series and is not present in the majority of copies. Christie's has described another copy containing precisely this additional plate, likewise bound into the regular sequence. The plate can be clearly seen in the final group of photographs.

The work was produced under the direction of the celebrated fencing master Henry Angelo (1756-1835). Rowlandson transformed what might otherwise have been a formal manual of cavalry swordsmanship into one of the most animated English color-plate books of the period. Mounted soldiers demonstrate the prescribed cuts, guards and parries against backgrounds of charging cavalry, infantry engagements, fallen soldiers and the confusion of battle. The sequence is today recognized as a landmark of fencing literature as well as an important series of Rowlandson military subjects.
As Martin Hardie observed: “With foreign invasion threatening our shores, martial ardour was the keynote of the year 1799…” and noted that Rowlandson's introduction of skirmishes, assaults and battle scenes caused the plates to lose the formality ordinarily associated with illustrations of military exercises.

Prideaux described the work as: “Valuable as a record of the military life and costume of the time.”

Together With: Thomas Rowlandson's Original Watercolor for Plate Nineteen

ROWLANDSON, Thomas. On the Right to the Front, Parry, against Bayonet. Original pen, ink and watercolor drawing, ca. 1798.

Image size 8 3/8 x 11 inches (212 x 280 mm.). Matted, framed and glazed; frame size 16 1/4 x 18 3/4 inches (412 x 477 mm.).









Inscribed by Rowlandson along the lower margin: “On the Right to the Front, Parry, against Bayonet.”

A superb original watercolor design for the nineteenth plate in the present volume, closely corresponding to the published aquatint and evidently prepared in connection with the production of the work.

The drawing depicts a mounted cavalryman on a white horse charging through infantry armed with fixed bayonets. A fallen soldier and overturned artillery dominate the foreground, while mounted combat continues behind. Rowlandson's vigorous pen work and restrained washes of blue, gray, buff and red give the composition exceptional movement and immediacy.

In the published work the composition appears as plate 19 under the slightly altered title “On the Right to the Front, Parry, against Infantry.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art possesses an impression of this plate, identifying it as a hand-colored etching and aquatint by Thomas Rowlandson, published by Henry Angelo on September 1, 1798, as part of the Hungarian and Highland Broadsword series.

The survival of the original drawing alongside a first-edition copy of the work provides a particularly evocative link between Rowlandson's original conception and its translation into the finished hand-colored aquatint.

Provenance of the watercolor: The Harcourt Johnstone Collection.

The Plates:
Title-page. Dated Feby. 12th, 1799.
Prepare to Guard. Watermarked 1794.
Guard. Watermarked 1794.
Horses Head, Near Side, Protect.
Off Side Protect, New Guard.
Left Protect.
Right Protect.
Bridle Arm Protect. Small 3/4 inch tear to upper blank margin.
Sword Arm Protect.
St. George's Guard.
Thigh Protect, New Guard. Small two-inch tear to lower blank margin, just touching plate border.
Give Point, and Left Parry. Watermarked 1794.
Cut One, and Bridle Arm Protect.
Cut Two & Right Protect.
Cut One and Horses Head near Side, Protect.
Cut Six, and Sword Arm Protect. Watermarked 1794.
Cut Two and Horse's Off Side Protect, New Guard. Watermarked 1794.
Cut One, and Thigh Protect, New Guard.
On the Right to the Front, Parry, against Infantry. Watermarked 1794.
20*. The Guards of the Highland Broadsword as taught by Mr. H. Angelo's Academy. Dated Jany. 20th, 1799.
Outside Guard; St. George's Guard; Inside Guard.
Outside Half Hanger; Hanging Guard; Inside Half Hanger.
Half Circle Guard; Medium Guard. Watermarked 1794. Small 7/8 inch tear to lower blank margin.
The Consequence of not shifting the Leg. Approximately 3/8 inch short at lower margin.
The Advantage of Shifting the Leg. Watermarked 1794. Small one-inch tear to lower blank margin.
The photographs show particularly well the remarkable variety of the equestrian and battle compositions and the attractive contemporary coloring throughout.

Grolier/Rowlandson 10. Tooley 414. Colas 2587. Hiler, p. 762. Martin Hardie, pp. 164–165 and 315. Falk, p. 212. Prideaux, p. 225.

Price: $14,500.00