I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Dance of Life, The
London: Published by R. Ackermann, Repository of Arts, 1817. Item #06525
Thomas Rowlandson’s “Dance of Life”
[ROWLANDSON, Thomas, illustrator]. [COMBE, William]. The Dance of Life, A Poem, by the Author of “Doctor Syntax;” Illustrated with Coloured Engravings, by Thomas Rowlandson. London: Published by R. Ackermann, Repository of Arts, 1817.
First edition. Octavo (9 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches; 232 x 146 mm.). [6], 285, [1, blank], [1, “Advertisement”], [1, blank] pp. Twenty-six hand-colored aquatint plates (including the frontispiece and engraved title). Plates watermarked 1816, text watermarked 1817. Some scattered foxing, mainly at beginning and end.
Contemporary mottled calf,smooth spine ruled in gilt, red morocco label lettered in gilt, edges stained blue. Corners a little rubbed. A good, entirely unsophisticated copy in original condition.
Issued as the companion volume to The English Dance of Death, this work represents one of the most appealing collaborations between Thomas Rowlandson and William Combe, and stands among the great achievements of the English color-plate book.
Where The Dance of Death revels in macabre satire, The Dance of Life adopts a lighter but no less incisive tone, charting the follies, ambitions, and vanities of human existence across its various stages. Rowlandson’s hand-colored aquatints display his characteristic fluency and comic invention - lively scenes of fashionable society, professional life, and domestic absurdity, all rendered with a brilliance that exemplifies the aquatint medium at its height.
Published by Ackermann at the height of his influence, the work forms part of the celebrated series of color-plate books that defined Regency taste. The plates, engraved and colored to a high standard, remain among Rowlandson’s most engaging and accessible productions, combining theatrical composition with acute social observation.
Copies in contemporary calf, as here, are increasingly desirable, particularly when retaining their original state without later rebinding or restoration. While often encountered as part of the paired set with The English Dance of Death, the present volume stands entirely on its own merits as a coherent and highly decorative work.
Abbey, Life, 264; Grolier, Rowlandson, 38; Tooley 411.
Price: $950.00