Seasonal and other Decorative Prints

47x62 cm

Six engraved plates by William Hogarth printed on a single foilo sheet from the "Heath edition" of Hogarth's works published in 1822, the final edition to include the original Hogarth plates.

THEATRE ROYAL
April a comedy with the Mock Doctor For the Benefit of the Author of the Farce
W. Hogarth f.^t 
Plate size: 14x15cm .

THE AUTHOR'S BENEFIT PASQUIN 
At y^e Theatre in y^e Hay-Market
W. Hogarth 

FOR·THE·BENEFIT·OF·M^r·WALKER.
THEATRE ROYAL COVENT GARDEN.
W.Hogarth. in.^t | J.Sympson Jun.^r sculp.

FOR THE BENEFIT OF JOE MILLER
THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE THE OLD BATCHELOR
 W. Hogarth f.^t

IOHN·SHAW RAM INN CIRENCESTER

James Figg
Master of y^e Noble Science of Defence on y right hand in Oxford Road near Adam & Eve court. teaches Gentle-men y^e use of y small.backsword. & Quarterstaff. at home & abroad.

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 sixth and final state of the plate.

Waterstain to upper left corner of the page affecting the Theatre Royal plate, otherwise very good.