Social Political & Satirical

39x32 cm

Pair of Plates; FRANCE PLATE 1^.st and ENGLAND PLATE 2.^nd from the last edition of the original Hogarth engravings reworked by James Heath - the "Heath' edition of 1822.
Each plate has the imprint in the top margin: Designed & Etch'd by W.^m Hogarth | Publish'd according to Act of Parliament March 8.th 1756.
Published in 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.
The plates reflect the fears of a French invasion following the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756, plate 1 showing the underfed and bedraggled French troops cooking frogs on a fire and preparing to embark for England, in the foreground a monk is examining a sledge filled with intruments of torture, a reference to English fears of the Inquisition. Plate 2 in contrast depicts well fed English troops relaxing outside The Duke of Cumberland Inn (Prince William, Duke of Cumberland was a popular figure following his defeat of the Jacobites at Culloden in 1746), one soldier painting a caricature of the King of France on the wall while other troops are performing an orderly drill in the background. The pair of prints representing the opinion that the English are well prepared to prevent an invasion and the underfed French are of little threat.

Both pages have a waterstain in the top right corner but with large margins (9 - 14cm.) are at closest 5cm from the plate edge and are otherwise in fine condition.