[Rarebooks] fa: WILLIAM HENRY PYNE - ON RUSTIC FIGURES IN IMITATION OF CHALK 1813 - 36 PLATES

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other illustrated works, auctions ending Sunday, February 3. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/ba9hgsg

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

W. H. Pyne: On Rustic Figures, in Imitation of Chalk. London: Published by R. Ackermann,… Harrison & Leigh, printers, 1813. FIRST EDITION. Original paper-covered boards rebacked in calf with gilt-stamped rules and fleurette; 4to (28.5 x 22 cm); [2], ii, 36 plate leaves.

Two pages of text plus 36 full-page soft-ground etchings (complete), printed rectos only on heavy wove paper watermarked 1809. Not to be confused with Ackermann's 1817 reissue of the same work or with Pyne's Etchings of Rustic Figures for the Embellishment of Landscape (1815), this 1813 title is apparently quite scarce: WorldCat locates only one copy, at the Yale Center for British Art. Not listed in Abbey. Original boards with some rubbing and staining, bumping to the corners, light wear to the edges; fore-edges possibly trimmed a bit, occasionally clipping the imprints; first page of text with a streak of glue residue in the margin; plates with a few small spots, occasional touches of soiling to the margins; light childish pencilings (erasable) on the reverse of two plates, not affecting the images, which appear to be writing exercises of someone who lived in [?] House, Lenniston, Callander [Scotland]; otherwise contents are clean and sound, firmly bound.

William Henry Pyne (1769-1843) was a painter and watercolorist who in his early career specialized in depicting the middling and lower classes of English society, as well as gypsies, traveling players and other outliers. His Microcosm, or a Picturesque Delineation of the Arts, Agriculture and Manufactures of Great Britain (1806) was very successful. However, like many artists of the time involved in plate books, Pyne eventually overreached himself: his sumptuously illustrated History of the Royal Residences (1829), while well regarded, proved a financial disaster, and he ended his days in penury and neglect. In the present work, Payne aims to instruct the student of drawing in the art of capturing the "peculiar order of dignity" of rustic folk. In his introduction he writes: "The elegant heads, the delicate hands and feet, and the languishing positions of the classic figure, cannot accord with the hardy habits of the peasantry. Nothing can be more absurd, than to see a race of gods and goddesses with scythes and hay-rakes, attired in waggoners' frocks and mob caps… To become acquainted with the true rustic character, the student must go to nature, and view this class of people in their occupations…"