[Rarebooks] fa: WILLIAM HEATH - SKETCHES OF IRISH CHARACTER - 3 Hand-Colored Caricatures 1826-30

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, April 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/pz2yh7n

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain

Three less-than-culturally-sensitive caricatures of Irish life by William Heath, aka "Paul Pry." Hand-colored etchings, the largest measuring  9 3/4 x 14 1/4 in. Some light toning and cockling, a few small spots and stains, else quite clean and crisp. All three published by Thomas McLean, 26 Haymarket, London, and bearing the figure of "Paul Pry" in the lower-left corner.

Exchange No Robbery, Sketches of Irish Character [ca. 1826]. A tramp trades clothes with a scarecrow, saying, in part: "Be de powers here's a mighty Iligint coat — long life to ye Jew'l — sure I'll be after making a bit of an Ixchange wid ye… — its far an' near a body might thravel in ould Ireland wid out matein such looke — its a pity ye hadent a Breeches." Not in British Museum Satires.

A 40sh. Freeholders only Expedient for the Salvation of Boby [sic] & Soul [ca. 1827-30]. "The freeholder, a ragged Irish peasant, stands full-face, between a bloated priest and a fashionably dressed young man; both tug at his coat-collar. The obese priest, who wears robes, with a large cross from neck to knee, holds up a print of the Devil smoking a pipe, in the bowl of which sits a tortured man; he says: 'Vote for your Priest or see this picture of your Soul in the next world.' The other points behind him to an eviction scene, saying, 'Vote for your Landlord or see the real consequence in this World.' Freeholder: 'Sure I'm bother'd hadent I better be after voten for both your honors id would make the thing asier aney how.' In one hand is his shillelagh, in the other his hat with a tobacco-pipe thrust in it. In the background is a cluster of mud huts placarded Wanted Protestant Tenants for these Cabins. Men chase away a ragged family in one direction, and a pig in the other." BM Satires 15537.

Don't Say Nay, Charming Judy Flanagan [ca. 1828]. To which the blushing lady replies, "Och murdther, ye divil — aisey now." Possibly by a William Heath/"Paul Pry" imitator. Not in BM Satires.