VERY RARE COLLECTOR ILLUSTRATION (1813) HAND COLORED QUARTO AQUATINT ENGRAVING FROM HOWITT & CAPTAIN WILLIAMSON’S AMERICAN ANECDOTE, WOLVES & BOY, FROM FOREIGN FIELD SPORTS, FISHERIES ETC… BY CAPTAIN WILLIAMSON.

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American Anecdote - Wolves & Boy, aquatint engraving hunting print, from a complete, detailed & accurate description of the wild sports of the east and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of many undomesticated animals.

EARLY 19TH CENTURY: VERY RARE COLLECTOR ILLUSTRATION, FINELY ACCOMPLISHED (WITH ORIGINAL HANDCOLORING) AQUATINT ENGRAVING, FROM DRAWINGS BY HOWITT, ILLUSTRATING TALES OF SPORT AND HUNTING.

THIS ONE IS OF WOLVES CHASING A BOY IN NORTH AMERICA. SUCH PLATES SHOW A WONDERFUL MIX OF EARLY ANTHROPOLOGY AND ABSOLUTE FANTASY.

IT COMES FROM: AMERICAN ANECDOTE, WOLVES AND BOY, FROM “FOREIGN FIELD SPORTS. FISHERIES, SPORTING ANECDOTES, ETC.. FROM DRAWINGS BY MESSRS HOWITT, ATKINSON, CLARK, MANSKIRCH ETC, WITH A SUPPLEMENT OF NEW SOUTH WALES” BY CAPTAIN WILLIAMSON.

Under the engraving, the text says: Published and sold January 1st 1813, by Edward Orme, Bond Street, London. Howitt Del, Dubourg Sculpt.

Colored by hand, by J. Hamble, after Howitt from an original sketch by Williamson.

Samuel Howitt (1756/7-1822) was an English painter, illustrator and etcher of animals, hunting, horse-racing and landscape scenes.

This print is an original antique print and not a modern reproduction. This print is authentic. Due to its age, there are imperfections to be expected.  Please view the detailed photo(s) carefully to be satisfied. As you can see, the condition of the borders is not great, so we have matted the art in an acid free mat with backing and it looks very nice and ready to frame. Slight foxing.

QUARTO: print alone  13” X 9” , with acid free mat and backing 15” x 12 1/2

During the nineteenth century, field sports, particularly the hunting of wild game, were a common colonial leisure activity in India and Africa. Although the hunting of large-game was considered the most prestigious, small-game hunting, or 'shooting' as the British referred to it, which targeted birds and small animals such as the hare, was also extremely popular at the time. As pictured in this fine image from Williamson's 'Oriental Field Sports', huntsmen were frequently accompanied by their servants and several hunting dogs.

One of the finest and most detailed works on Indian Sport and wildlife, these images exemplify not only the native flora and fauna, but capture the excitement of the hunt and provide "a faithful representation of [the] picturesque country, together with the manners and customs of both the native and European inhabitants". (Prideaux) Captain Thomas Williamson, a British officer of the East India Company, served in Bengal for 20 years. An accomplished amateur artist, his sketches were then worked up into drawings by Samuel Howitt and engraved for publication. Samuel Howitt, artist and sportsman, was largely self-taught in his profession, though he belonged to the artistic circles of the day. He is considered by some critics to be second only to Stubbs in the ranks of British animal painters. He is well-known for his sporting scenes of racing and hunting and for scenes depicting both conventional and exotic animals like the rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, bear, deer and buffalo.

Thus this work included illustrations of big game hunting, whaling, fishing, birding, and bull fighting in North America, Germany, Lapland, Spain, Russia, and Africa.  The supplement also included illustrations of hunting practices by the aborigines in Australia.  These scenes are noted for their unprejudiced depictions, rare amongst early colonial Australian art: "without question the most attractive and sympathetic of the early European depictions of the native inhabitants." "Other artists working in the colony at the time portrayed the Aborigines with grotesque sarcasm. But the drawings in Field Sports demonstrate respect for their dignity and exuberantly innocent humanity".