Search Results: Caricature from Florilegius

Rare first edition of John Mitford's entertaining story of a young midshipman in Lord Nelson's Royal Navy. First edition in book form, originally issued 1819 in eight monthly parts. With twenty hand-colored aquatint engravings by Charles Williams, vii, 224 pages of text and 68 pages of Notes. A cash-in imitation of Alfred Burton's Adventures... with illustrations by Thomas Rowlandson, published in 1818.With lively illustrations of an apprentice midshipman's rambles in the brothels of Portsmouth, fighting the captain in the wardroom, locked in shackles in the gunroom, riding pigs through the market of Gibraltar, stealing planter's wives in the West Indies, humiliated by sailors when crossing the equator, and finally discharged at Greenwich Hospital. John Mitford (1782-1831), joined the navy as midshipman on HMS Victory. He served on ships in battles in the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, Egypt and the West Indies. He was discharged from the navy as an insane alcoholic in 1814, and thereafter made a living… Read More

Set of 36 handcoloured lithographs after satirical illustrations by Jean-Gabriel Scheffer from What one says and what one thinks, Little Scenes of the World.An album of rare lithographs that depict comical scenes of daily life in Paris during the reign of King Charles X, in the Restoration era. Women in the voluminous puff-sleeved dresses and bonnets of the time, the men in elegant jackets and pants, lounging in restaurants, cafes, libraries, gardens and galleries.With title page and 36 hand-coloured plates lithographed and printed by Gihaut Frères in Paris (last six plates printed by Charles Tilt, London). These delightful satirical scenes mock the hypocrisies and annoyances of bourgeois society, in the same way as Thomas Rowlandson depicted the Miseries of Human Life in Regency England. The captions show what the characters say on the left, and what they really think on the right. Women flatter Plain Janes and ugly men, men flatter ugly women, a widow takes a new lover before her husband's… Read More

Very good copy of the mid-19th century reprint of the Lancashire Hogarth's book of caricatures, originally published in 1773
Complete with portrait of the artist, engraved title page, and 44 engraved plates printed on 25 pages
The plates show quite an extraordinary parade of 18th century scenes in pubs, hairdressers, shops, dentists and living rooms. A drunk vomits into a bowl at a bar, a wife beats a husband, a demon steals from a preacher, ugly bumpkins gurn, drunken rustics brawl, foppish politicians read the Magna Carta, a judge molests a female witness, a barber fleeces a Macaroni, a sailor is cheated of his prize money, etc.
There are four plates of dentists using tongs and string to extract teeth from unhappy patients. There are even a few portraits of famous people: Lord Bute Pl. 17, diplomat John Russell, Duke of Bedford, in Pl. 18, botanists Daniel Solander and Joseph Banks with Plato in Pl. 20, and a group of rogues and scoundrels in the book trade in northern England and Scotland in Pl.… Read More

Incomplete copy of a popular book on the Regency spa town of Scarborough.18 (of 21) handcoloured aquatint plates etched by Thomas Rowlandson after original sketches by J. Green. (Plates aquatinted by J. Stadler and J. Bluck.)Missing the title page and frontispiece Widow Ducker, pages I-XV, and the plates The Breakfast Room and The Shower Bath. The surviving 18 plates show life at a fashionable resort town, with scenes of people drinking the healing waters at the Spa Wells, swimming in the sea, dancing at the Ball Room, promenading on the Terrace, shopping at the Shoe Shop, borrowing books at the circulating Library, etc. The naked woman bathing in The Warm Bath is said to be the poet Mary Robinson, George IV's mistress, The poems are by Rowlandson's frequent collaborator William Combe, John Buonarotti Papworth and Francis Wrangham.Condition: Half red morocco, spine with five raised bands, gilt decoration, red buckram boards. Binding strong and solid, a few pages and plates with damaged edges, some… Read More

Very good copy of the second edition of John Kay's idiosyncratic portraits of celebrities and eccentrics in Georgian Edinburgh.With 358 (of 360) engraved copperplates bound in four volumes. (Plates 84, Right Hon. Charles Hope, and 108, Robert Craig Esq., in Volume 2 apparently never bound in.)With many amusing caricatures of late eighteenth century Edinburgh society, including economist Adam Smith, aeronaut Vincent Lunardi, riding master Angelo Tremamundo, philosopher Thomas Paine, author William Smellie, engraver Andrew Bell, actress Sarah Siddons, golfer Alexander McKellar, apothecary Mortar Willie, anatomist John Barclay, idiots and aristocrats, giants and little people, volunteer soldiers, lawyers, judges, chimney sweeps, sedan-chairmen, and scenes of cockfighting, cudgelling, election violence, transvestitism and ballooning. The appendix has portraits of Toussaint Louverture, John Kay himself, William Wallace, John Knox, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Mary Queen of Scots, George III,… Read More

Very good copy of Richard Dagley's first foray into caricatureWith 26 comical illustrations from the life of a young wastrel in Regency England, most engraved by William Henry BrookesWith 2-page dedication, 3-page advertisement, 32-page essay Miscellaneous Observations on the Ludicrous in Art all by Dagley, and 4-page introduction in poetry and 180-page poem by Gaspey. According to the preface, it was the author of Flim-Flams! [Isaac D'Israeli], who encouraged Dagley to experiment with comedy. Later, "an ingenious friend" suggested he used the word "Taking" to stimulate further practice. The result is seen here in these commissioned illustrations for Thomas Gaspey's doggerel adventure.A young student, Tom Takeall, ignores his father's advice and sets off on a disastrous series of adventures. He is depicted riding dangerously, spending lavishly on clothes, losing bets on the horses, getting robbed in the theatre, boxing with a prizefighter, eloping with a young woman and then pistol-dueling with her… Read More

First edition of this rare colour plate book in the medieval chivalric genre.With 24 handcoloured copperplates attributed to Thomas Rowlandson, and doggerel verse in the style of frequent collaborator William Combe. Probably inspired by the success of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe published in 1819 and the Regency craze for all things medieval Gothic.A ripping yarn with Sir Ethelbert romancing the fair Adelaide, despite the evil machinations of rival knight Gondibert. The plates depict knights in armour in combat at tournaments, sword-fighting duels, dastardly deeds, pageantry and courtly love.Condition: Both plates and text with spots of foxing, title page with closed tear, 2cm hole in text page 37, childish scribbling on rear of Plate 13, general signs of use throughout. Binding with gilt decoration on spine, red title label, five raised bands. some scuffing to edges. Printed for William Sams, bookseller to H.R.H. the Duke of York, 1 St James's-Street, 1823. His plate books such as A Tour Through Paris… Read More