Rowlandson's Sketches From Nature
London: , 1822. Item #06710
Extremely Rare Series of Eighteen Hand-Colored Aquatint Plates
Depicting the West Country and Cornwall
[ROWLANDSON, Thomas, illustrator]. Rowlandson’s Sketches from Nature. [London: 1822].
Oblong quarto (8 7/16 x 10 11/16 inches; 214 x 272 mm.). Eighteen finely hand-colored aquatint plates, all drawn and etched by Thomas Rowlandson and aquatinted by Stadler. Plates watermarked 1818 and 1821.
Bound by Rivière & Son ca. 1910 in three-quarter red morocco over red cloth boards ruled in gilt, spine with five raised bands decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt compartments, all edges gilt. Armorial bookplate of Eric Hyde, Lord Sexton, on front pastedown. A fine copy.
Most views are of the Isle of Wight, Cornwall and the West Country but also includes a view of Strawberry Hill.
An extremely rare and little-known series of topographical aquatints by Thomas Rowlandson. Although best remembered as England's greatest caricaturist, Rowlandson was also an accomplished landscape draughtsman whose picturesque views possess a freshness and immediacy often absent from more formal topographical publications of the period. The present series records scenes encountered during travels through the West Country, particularly Cornwall, the Isle of Wight, Somerset, and Dorset.
The plates were engraved during the final decade of Rowlandson's life and display the mature artist's characteristic freedom of line combined with delicate hand coloring and subtle aquatint effects supplied by Stadler. Particularly attractive are the Cornish subjects, including views of Fowey, Camelford, Blisland, the River Camel, West Looe, and the dramatic scene Clearing a Wreck on the North Coast of Cornwall, which captures the rugged maritime character of the region.
The work appears to have been issued without letterpress and survives only rarely. Bibliographical descriptions are inconsistent: Grego records seventeen plates, while complete examples contain eighteen, as here. The series is absent from both Hardie and Prideaux and is considerably scarcer than Rowlandson's better-known landscape books such as The Beauties of English Scenery or The Tour of Dr. Syntax. Complete hand-colored examples are of the utmost rarity.
The Plates:
1. White Lion Inn, Ponder's End, Middlesex
2. A view near Richmond
3. View near Newport, Isle of Wight
4. Temple at Strawberry Hill
5. Stamford Lincolnshire
6. Taunton Vale, Somersetshire
7. View near Bridport, Dorsetshire
8. A View in Devonshire
9. Village of St. Udy, Cornwall
10. West Loo Cornwall
11. The Seat of Mr. Mitchell Esq. Hengar, Cornwall
12. Fowey, Cornwall
13. View on River Camel, Cornwall
14. A View of Camelford, Cornwall
15. A Cottage in the Dutchy of Cornwall
16. View at Blisland, near Bodmin, Cornwall
17. Clearing a Wreck on North Coast of Cornwall
18. Rouler Moor, Cornwall
Abbey, Scenery 33; Falk, pp. 221-222; Grego ll, p. 373 (citing seventeen plates); Tooley 426; Not in Martin Hardie or Prideaux.
Price: $6,500.00