Social Political & Satirical

56x44 cm

Four Plates:
AN ELECTION ENTERTAINMENT Plate I
Painted and Engraved by W.^m Hogarth. Published 24th Feb.^ry 1755, as the Act directs.
To the Right Honourable Henry Fox, &c.&c.&c. This Plate is humbly Inscrib’d by his most Obedient Humble Serv.^t W.^m Hogarth.
CANVASSING for VOTES. Plate II.
Painted by W. Hogarth, Engraved by C. Grignion. Published 20.^th Feb.^ry 1757. As the Act Directs.
To His Excellency S.^r Charles Hanbury Williams Ambassador to the Court of RUSSIA. This Plate is most humbly Inscribed By his most Obedient humble Servant. Will.^m Hogarth.
THE POLLING. Plate III.
Engraved by W. Hogarth & Le Cave Published 20 Feb.^ry 1750. As the Act directs.
To the Hon.^ble S.^r Edward Walpole Knight of the BATH. This Plate is most humbly inscribed By his most Obedient humble Servant Will.^m Hogarth.
CHAIRING THE MEMBERS. Plate 4.
Engraved by W. Hogarth & f. Aviline. Published 1:^st Jan:^ry 1758 as the Act directs.
To the Hon.^ble George Hay, one of the Lords Commissioners of the ADMIRALTY, &c.&c.
This Plate is most humbly Inscribed By his most Obedient humble Servant, Will.^m Hogarth.
The Works of William Hogarth, from the Original Plates restored by James Heath…London:
Printed for Baldwin & Cradock, Paternoster Row, by G. Woodall, Angel Court, Skinner
Street.
William Hogarth (1697-1764), apprenticed as an engraver, became the most signifiant artist and printmaker of his time, his satirical caricatures and political cartoons establishing the genre. From 1730 Hogarth established his own business publishing and selling his own prints. After his death his plates passed to his wife Jane who continued issuing his prints until her own death in 1789. The plates were then acquired by publisher John Boydell and sold again, at the Boydell bankruptcy sale in 1818 to Baldwin & Cradock who began selling prints from 1820. Noted engraver James Heath was employed to strengthen some of the engraved lines and this final issue of 1822 is the last to use Hogarth's original engraved plates.
This series of four engravings illustrate the election of of a member of Parliament in Oxfordshire in 1754. They demonstrate the corruption endemic in parliamentary elections in the 18th century before the Reform Act of 1832.
These prints are from the Heath edition. They each have a light water stain to the top right corner slightly affecting the printed area, the only blemish on a fine set of four original large Hogarth prints.
The price is for the set of four prints. 
The size given is the size of each print.