Horse Accomplishments

London: R. Ackermann, 1799. The Exceedingly Rare
"Pleasing Effects of Teaching a Horse to Dance"
And Other Vagaries of Horse Comportment

WOODWARD, George Moutard, and ROWLANDSON, Thomas. Horse Accomplishments. R. Ackermann, 1799.

Oblong quarto (11 1/8 x 13 1/2 in; 283 x 343 mm). Twelve hand colored aquatint plates drawn by Woodward and etched by Rowlandson, with droll captions by Woodward. Average plate size: (8 5/8 x 10 3/4 in; 219 x 273 mm). Each plate set-in mounted. Plate numbers 2, 4, 9, 11 & 12 exhibit near invisible restoration at corners and perimeters - not affecting images. Plate number 5 cut a little close on lower margin.

Late twentieth century brick red morocco decoratively bordered in blind, front cover with onlaid rectangular dark green morocco label lettered in gilt. Smooth spine with blind stamped compartments, marbled endpapers.

Scarce suite of Woodward and Rowlandson's caricatures of horse and their riders. Each plate satirizes a different profession.

Exceedingly rare, with only a handful of copies brought to auction over the past one hundred years.

OCLC and KVK locate only three copies, in Houghton Library at Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford. It is quite astounding that none of the institutions in the British national library system have any copies of this waggish satire on equine behavior (the plate titles refer to the horses) and the consequent frustrations of those who ride them.

Of the great Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) nothing needs to be added here.

Of George Murgatroyd Woodward (1760?-1809), caricaturist and author, the DNB notes that he, "later known as Mustard George, grew up in a Derbyshire town, living with his father and, to judge by the evidence of his later writings, received a sound education. He took early to caricature, ridiculing his neighbours in Derbyshire; a folio of these drawings dated 1781 is in the Derby Local Studies Library, among a sizable collection of his prints, drawings, and book illustrations. His caricatures having caused something of a local stir, he persuaded his father to let him seek his fortune in London.

"Apart from two caricature prints dated 1785 designed by Woodward and published by him from 28 Cary Street, Lincoln's Inn, London, it was not until 1790 that he made an impact on the London scene. Thereafter his output was copious. The British Museum catalogues list 525 examples of his work from the next twenty years, published by Holland, Fores, Ackermann, and latterly Tegg, all leading printsellers. These prints, designed by Woodward, are etched by others-Rowlandson, who was his friend and drinking companion, Isaac Cruikshank, Roberts, and Williams. Woodward's original drawings are vigorous... [and] his value lay in his humorous ideas.

"Woodward...might have rivalled Hogarth. Certainly his collaboration with Rowlandson constituted a lively, if frivolous, commentary on the social scene. Dorothy George described him as 'original, prolific, varied, humorous and good-humoured,' and few students of the subject would dispute her conclusion that his death was 'a loss to caricature' (George, English Political Caricature, 1.174)" Oxford DNB).

The Plates:

1. An Astronomer !!
2. A Paviour !!
3. A Whistler !!
4. A Devotee !!
5. A Politician !!
6. A Time Keeper !!
7. A Civilian !!
8. An Arithmetician !!
9. A Loiterer !!
10. A Minuet Dancer !!
11. A Land Measurer !!
12. A Vaulter !!

Abbey, Life, 397; Bobins III, 1203; De Ricci, The Book Collector's Guide pp. 471, 641; Gordon, BC 38; Grolier Club Catalog, No. 54; Prideaux, p. 350.