A selection of our stock of the famous prints by William Hogarth. Almost all individual prints and full sets are available. Please e-mail for further information.
Please note: The prints here come from a Boydell edition, published about 1820, unless mentioned otherwise. All have old colour and are in excellent condition. Dimensions are approximate and exclude the frame.
The Harlot's Progress.
 William Hogarth, The Harlot's Progress. Sold as a set of six. First published 1732/3. Six plates, framed in an old gold moulding. Plate One. The series which made Hogarth's reputation. The heroine, newly arrived in London, is approached by the notorious procuress, Mrs. Needham.
 Plate Two. Argues with her Jew Protector. The young heroine is shown diverting the attention of her wealthy patron in order to allow one of her gallants to escape.
 Plate Three. Apprehended by a Magistrate. Having now lost the favour of her wealthy benefactor, the harlot is clearly living in reduced circumstances. Note the gentlemen entering the room. One is Sir John Gonson, a magistrate known for his severe sentences for prostitution.
 Plate Four. A Scene in Bridewell. The harlot is now in a House of Correction. Here, she must either beat hemp or stand locked in the "correction" like the unfortunate behind her.
 Plate Five. Expires while the Doctors are disputing. Released from the Bridewell, the harlot breathes her last in some wretched hovel whilst the two quack doctors argue about the relative merits of their medicines.
 Plate Six. The Funeral. The plate on the coffin confirms that M. Hackabout died in September 1731, aged 23. Her remains are surrounded by other harlots, one of whom is seducing the undertaker!
For details of availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
A second set of six prints, and another of Hogarth's most famous images: Marriage a la Mode. Full sized plates framed in a dark gold moulding. A really impressive group.
 Plate One. The Contract. Two youngsters being pushed into marriage as part of a financial agreement between their two families. The noble Earl indicates his family tree, whilst the wealthy citizen, whose daughter is being married off, surveys the marriage settlement.
 Plate Two. The Breakfast Scene. The home of the recently married couple at 1.15 P.M. The young Lord has yet to get to bed following an evening of wild abandon, whilst his wife has only just got out of bed and taken her breakfast. She too has been entertaining.
 Plate Three. The Scene with the Quack. The young Lord is complaining to a quack doctor that the pills he has been given have failed to cure his disease. To his right is the young girl to whom it has been transmitted. The final figure may be a prostitute from whom the problem originated!
 Plate Four. The Toilette Scene. The heroine, infatuated with her new wealth, entertains herself with the fashionable excesses of her time. An Italian singer and a flautist provide the musical entertainment. She has found a new friend - the lawyer who drew up the marriage agreement.
 Plate Five. The Death of the Earl. Suspecting the fidelity of his wife, the young Lord follows her to a masquerade, and from there to a bagnio, where he discovers her in flagrante delicto with the lawyer, Silvertongue. They fight, and the Earl is mortally wounded. The lawyer escapes through the window.
 Plate Six. The Death of the Countess. The heroine, full of remorse, takes her own life by drinking laudanum. The old nurse pulls the child from her dying mother, whilst the merchant removes a ring from his daughter's finger.
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
William Hogarth, The Rake's Progress. First published, 1735. Eight plates, 12x 16 inches, framed in a gold moulding. Sold as a set of eight.
 Plate One. The hero is being measured for his father's mourning, and is trying to buy his way out of a betrothal to a country girl, made before securing his inheritance.
 Plate Two. Surrounded by Artists and Professors. Here, the young rake is shown surrounded by poets, milliners, jockeys, barbers, French tailors, and the other retinue of the fashionable young man.
 Plate Three. The Tavern Scene. The Rake, accompanied by his friends to a brothel, sinks deeper into depravity as he awaits the entertainment of a "posture woman". She is shown undressing as preparation for her performance.
 Plate Four. Arrested for Debt. The Rake, dressed in preparation for a visit to the Court at St.James's Palace, is accosted by a bailiff.
 Plate Five. Marries an Old Maid. His fortune now spent, the Rake is compelled to marry an old woman for her wealth. The church shows all the signs of decay as the Rake is exhibiting in his actions.
 Plate Six. The Gaming House. Determined to get away from his new marriage partner, the Rake has tried to win a separate fortune at cards. His posture indicates that this has been unsuccessful.
 Plate Seven. The Prison Scene. Thrown into debtor's prison, the Rake sits surrounded by others in the same predicament - but for more honest reasons.
 Plate Eight. The Madhouse. Perhaps the most famous image from the series. The Rake is in Bedlam - the madhouse - surrounded by other insane characters.
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
A further famous set: Industry and Idleness.
The story of this series of twelve prints is easy to follow through the descriptive titles which are outlined below. One of Hogarth's comments on this series was that "These twelve prints were calculated for the instruction of young people and everything addressed to them is fully described in words as well as figures..... These prints I have found to sell much more rapidly at Christmas than at any other season." (S. Barton, The Genius of William Hogarth)
The half-plate pairs are framed as one in a gold moulding.
 Plate One. Top: The fellow Prentices at their looms. Bottom. The Industrious Prentice performing his duty as a Christian.
 Plate Two. Top: The Idle Prentice at play in the Churchyard during Divine Service. Bottom: The Industrious Prentice favoured and Entrusted by His Master.
 Plate Three. Top: The Idle Prentice Turned Away and Sent to Sea. Bottom: The Industrious Prentice Out of His Time and Married to His Master's Daughter.
 Plate Four. Top: The Idle Pentice returned from the Sea and in a Garret with a common Prostitute. Bottom: The Industrious Prentice Grown Rich, and Sheriff of London.
 Plate Five. Top: The Idle Prentice Betrayed and taken in a Night-Cellar with his Accomplices. Bottom: The Industrious Prentice Alderman of London, the Idle one brought before him and Impeached by his Accomplices.
 Plate Six. The Idle Prentice executed at Tyburn. One of the most famous of Hogarth's plates.
 Plate Seven. The Industrious Prentice Lord Mayor of London.
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
William Hogarth, The Times of the Day. A further famous series, this coming from the Cook edition. Framed in a gold moulding.
 Morning........
 A detail from the Hogarth print above.
 Noon......
 A detail from the print above.
 Evening........
 A detail from the print above.
 ...... and finally Night. A scene in Rummer Court, near Charing Cross. A prominent Bow Street magistrate is escorted home from a Masonic lodge meeting oblivious to the chaos around him.
 A detail from the print above.
 This set of four prints was engraved by T. Cook. These editions are popular with many specialist collectors.
For information on prices and availability, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
 William Hogarth, A Taste of High Life. Single plate. In an old gold molding. A pastiche of fashionable society and their possessions. The two central characters show their delight at a new coffee cup.
For information on prices and availability, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
 William Hogarth, Gin Lane. Sold with its pair, Beer Street, in a gold moulding. Print size, 12x14 inches. The problems caused by the availability of cheap gin are displayed and compared to the more sober (?) habits and prosperity of those whose tipple is beer. First published in 1751. SOLD.
________________________________________________________________
The Four Stages of Cruelty. Four unframed, unmounted prints on thick paper with wide margins. Print size, 13x15 inches. The tale of Tom Nero and his awful end at the hands of the anatomists. First published, 1751.
 The First Stage of Cruelty. Tom Nero as a young boy with an unpleasant way with dogs.....
 The Second Stage of Cruelty. Here the young man has become a brutal coachman, and has graduated to beating his horse........
 The Third Stage of Cruelty. Nero has reached the summit of his eveil career - he has murdered a servant girl who is pregnant with his child....
 The Reward of Cruelty. In the most famous of the scenes from this quartet (and one of Hogarth's most famous images of all) Nero's freshly executed body is in the hands of the anatomists. The dissector calmly advises his assistants to dismember the corpse, apparently with as much lack of feeling as Nero had for his fellow human beings.
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
 The March to Finchley. A comment on the unpreparedness of the King George II's forces to face the invading Jacobites in 1745. First published, 1751. Print size, 16x21 inches. Old colour framed in a gold moulding. SOLD. Other editions of this print are available.
________________________________________________________________
 Southwark Fair. Another of Hogarth's most popular single prints, showing activities south of the Thames. First published, 1733/4. Print size, 13x18 inches. Old colour framed in a gold moulding. SOLD. Other editions of this print are available.
________________________________________________________________
Before and After.
 A famous pair of prints entitled Before and After. These are very often missing from collections because they were issued in a separate pocket to keep them away from young eyes. Here is BEFORE....
 .....and here AFTER. This is a hard to find Eighteenth Century pair.
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
 Two famous prints sold as a pair. First, The Enraged Musician. Framed in a gold moulding.
 Second, its pair, The Distrest (sic) Poet. Framed in a gold moulding.
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
 Captain Thomas Coram. A wonderful version of Hogarth's friend, who played such an important part in establishing the foundling children's hospital in north London.
The sea captain Thomas Coram (1668-1751) was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset. He spent much of his early life at sea and in the American colonies. From 1694 to 1705, he operated a ship building business at Taunton, Massachusetts. Later he became a successful merchant in London. In 1735, he sponsored a colony for unemployed artisans in Nova Scotia. Coram was appalled by the many abandoned, homeless children living in the streets of London. On October 17, 1739 he obtained a Royal Charter granted by George II establishing a "hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children." In 1742-45, a new Foundling Hospital was built in Lamb's Conduit Fields, Bloomsbury, London. Hogarth was among the first governors of the Hospital. He also painted the famous portrait of Thomas Coram in1740.
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
 The Cock-Pit.
 A closer view of part of this famous print.
The Cockpit defiantly apes Leonardo's Last Supper. Hogarth was able to employ the qualities associated with the masterpiece and attach them to his "comic" indictment of his own society. At the centre of the composition - the place reserved for Christ - stands a blind nobleman, Lord Albemarle Bertie. He is in utter darkness, completely oblivious to the world around him, presiding over pandemonium with an eerie aplomb. Far from forging common bonds, the cruel spectacle he watches (but does not see) generates lost souls locked forever in private hells. The Cockpit is a chilling look at a degenerate condition that could destroy a whole nation.
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
 Beggar's Opera - Act Three.
 A closer view of part of this famous print.
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
 Charity in the Cellar. SOLD Other versions of this print are available. Please e-mail for information.
________________________________________________________________
 The Times. The two scenes framed together...
 Plate 1. A complex allagory on the state of Europe in 1761-62. France, Germany, and Spain are in flames, with the fire threatening to engulf England. Pitt (the elder) is shown on stilts, fanning the blaze with a pair of bellows, and wearing a cheese hanging from his neck. Lord Bute, with the aid of Scottish and English soldiers, attmpts to put out the fires.
 Plate 2. This plate was not published until 1790 - aftert the death of Hogarth's widow, who guided the publication of her husdand's work. A text remarks, "Its allusions, being even more obscure than those in Plate 1, will be of interest to only a few political historians......... So I shall not bother!
For information on availability and price, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
and finally.....
 A Midnight Modern Conversation.
Hogarth would have taken his group portraits seriously, but at some stage it was more or less inevitable that he would turn against a diet of domestic peace. He did, in 1732, and the result was one of his most popular pictures, A Midnight Modern Conversation. Using the standard conventions, he appealed to his public with a "comic conversation" of a thoroughly disgusting London bacchanalia.
For information on price and availability, please e-mail:
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________
| 
