Roadsters' Album, The

London: Messrs. Fores, 1845. A Unique Copy With Henry Alken's Original Pencil and Watercolor Drawing
And Etched Proof (Hand Colored by Henry Alken)
For the Pictorial Title-Page

NEWHOUSE, C[harles].B. [&] [ALKEN, Henry]. The Roadsters' Album. London: Messrs. Fores, Jan. 2nd, 1845.

Second edition. Hand-colored aquatint pictorial title-page [by Henry Alken] and sixteen fine hand-colored aquatints by
C.B. Newhouse. Eight pages of advertisements at end.

Folio (14 7/8 x 10 1/2 in; 379 x 268 mm.). Sixteen hand-colored aquatints, printed on artboard. Each plate marked, C.B. Newhouse delt. and London: Published by Messrs. Fores, 41, Piccadilly, corner of Sackville St. Jany 2nd 1845.

Recently rebound to contemporary style in full dark green morocco. Covers with gilt ruled borders enclosing a decorative gilt border and blind-stamped diamond. Spine richly gilt decorated and lettered in compartments, decorative gilt turn-ins, marbled end-papers.

A unique copy with Henry Alken's original pencil and watercolor drawing (signed in pencil and marked up in black ink) for the pictorial title-page and a hand-colored etched proof of the title, on the back of which is "To go with the original drawing / The Etched outline coloured by Alken Senr."

It is interesting to see the progression from the original drawing through the hand-colored etched proof to the finished published pictorial title.

"...The Roadsters' Album, a rare and humorous volume of hand-colored aquatints by C.B. Newhouse, an artist who confined himself almost exclusively to scenes of mail and stage coaching and sport driving. The book is an excellent example of Newhouse's work, as his images usually portray the speed associated with the open road, and the calamity or comedy that speed can bring about" (National Sporting Library).

First published under the title Incidents in Travelling, London: J. Watson, 1836. A rare book with only two copies appearing at auction over the past fifty years. Reissued as above in 1845 by Messrs. Fores under the title The Roadsters Album with an added hand-colored engraved title-page by Henry Alken.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Messrs. Fores (established 1785-86) "..specialised in publishing and selling the best sporting prints" (Siltzer).

Along with Newhouse's Scenes on the Road (1834-35) it would be difficult to find a book which better illustrates the world of coaching as it must have been than The Roadsters' Album. Each aquatint has been expertly hand-colored with a vividness that would be hard to surpass.

The Plates:

1. Travelling in a Hunting Country - "I hope you are not much hurt, Sir."
2. An Unwelcome Fare - "All that luggage by the Mail, Ma'am, quite impossible."
3. The Drag is broke and we are on the Bank.
4. Is the Bottom pretty sound?
5. A False Start.
6. Taking an Inside Birth [sic] - "It strikes me we're going to have some rough weather."
7. "No time to lose, Ma'am; here's the other coach close behind."
8. "Hold hard! You have forgot the lady."
9. An Awkward Place in a Frost.
10. I'm afraid we have now got into the Ditch.
11. The Sleepy Gatekeeeper.
12. The Old Grey loosed his Trace again.
13. "Quite full, Sir."
14. One Mile from Gretna, our Governor in sight.
15. An Arrival at Gretna - Overtaken by the Guardian.
16. Going to the Moors.

Tooley 346. Abbey, Life 407. Siltzer, p. 192. Snelgrove, British Sporting and Animal Prints, p.126, no. 4.