[Rarebooks] fa: HENRY FELLOWS "H.F." - ETCHINGS 1866 - Unknown[?] Artist/Rare Portfolio

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other illustrated works, auctions ending Sunday, February 10. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/bcytbhq

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[Henry Fellows]: Etchings. By H. F. [no place: no publisher,] 1866. Oblong elephant folio (43.5 x 33 cm; 17 x 13 in.); a  portfolio of 10 plates (complete) printed on heavy card stock and measuring 40.5 x 29 cm., loose as issued in original publisher's illustrated boards with leather spine, printed index laid down on inner front cover.

Rare: we have been unable to find another copy in WorldCat, Copac, British Library, Library of Congress, auction archives, etc. Nor have we been able to find out anything about the artist, who variously signs himself H.F., H. Fellows, and Henry Fellows. We're not even sure if he was English or American. Presumably the collection was privately printed, possibly as a keepsake for a limited circle of friends, as each plate is signed in the print "Xmas (or Christmas) 1866." While he owes something to Cruikshank, the artist shows a surprisingly modern style (à la Gluyas Williams or early New Yorker cartoonists) in these lively, crowded, whimsical scenes from literature and history. We particularly admire his horses. The collection is complete as listed on the printed index affixed to the inner front cover: I. Siege of Troy (A Little Storming Party); II. Invasion of Britain by Ceaser[sic], A.D. 55; III. Britain Under the Romans; IV. Invasion of Britain by Picts and Scots (The Channel Fleet of the period); V. Ye Pilgrimage of ye Holie Palmer; VI. The Planting of the Royal Standard of Charles the First at Nottingham, A.D. 1643; VII. The Escape. VIII. Silenus (after Flaxman); IX. The Meeting of the Red Cross Knight with Sans Foy (vide Spenser's "Faerie Queen"); X. The Smuggler's Leap (vide "Ingoldsby Legends").

Plates with some toning, darkening to the edges and scattered light soiling; small stain to the margin of one plate; original portfolio rubbed, worn and stained, chips missing from the corners of the front board, loss to the spine leather at the spine foot.