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With Fifty-Four Hand-Colored Etched Plates of London Characters ROWLANDSON, Thomas. Rowlandson's Characteristic Sketches of the Lower Orders, Intended as a Companion to the New Picture of London: Consisting of Fifty-Four Plates, Neatly Coloured. London: Printed for Samuel Leigh, 1820. First edition. Twelvemo. iv (Title and "Advertisement") pp. Fifty-four hand-colored etched plates. Plates watermarked 1819. Bound ca. 1920 by Rivière & Son in full red levant morocco. Gilt triple-rule border on covers, spine with five raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, board edges ruled in gilt, turn-ins decoratively tooled in gilt, all edges gilt, dark green coated endpapers. First two plates and text leaves with very slight stain to upper gutter, just affecting images. A superb copy. "In 1820 Leigh was lucky enough to acquire the copyright of 54 engravings of London characters in their street settings, drawn by RowlandsonThese little gems of observation, tinted with charming naiveté, are often set against identifiable architectural backgrounds: a vendor of singing birds near St John's Gate, 'distressed sailors' with a building reminiscent of the Admiralty, firemen at work in the vicinity of Christ Church, Newgate, a handsome female ballad singer with a suitable Opera House backcloth, and a humble shoeblack plying his trade before the unmistakably magnificent portico of Christ Church, Spitalfields. Fifteen years earlier Phillips had similarly cheered up the sober topographical engravings of his Modern London with a coloured set of London street types by W.M. Craig, who lacked however Rowlandson's flair for lively portrayal of the 'lower orders'. From the 1819 edition onwards the New Picture was available bound together with the Rowlandson characters" (Adams, London Illustrated, p. 291). Firmly in the tradition of Hogarth and anticipating Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, this work offers a nearly all-visual chronicle of urban life. It presents a vibrant panorama of street charactersvendors of dog meat, art, doormats, earthenware, roasting jacks, matches, and morealongside swindlers and musicians. Set against the backdrop of elegant Georgian architecture, the images convey a surprising gentleness and cheerfulness, a notable contrast to the sharper tone found in much contemporary caricature, including Rowlandson's own harsher works. Though the faces are stylized rather than realistic, the lively sense of motion throughout imparts a convincing impression of how street life must truly have felt. "No subjects could be better adapted to Rowlandson's pencil than these fifty-four sketches. Etched in outline, and tinted by hand, they show many phases of London street life that have now disappeared. The coal-heaver, and other characters always with us, are interesting in their bygone guise; while the night-watchman, the raree-showman, the sellers of poodles, bandboxes, saloop, and other commodities, are quaintly representative of London life in olden days" (Martin Hardie). Adams, London Illustrated, 126; Falk, p. 221; Grolier Club, Rowlandson, 44; Martin Hardie, pp. 173-174, 318; Tooley 424; Not in Abbey.

A harder-to-find Rowlandson title that with its small plates vividly brings back the liveliness of the London street of its day. 12mo. 14.5 by 9 cm. Very much in the tradition of Hogarth, and pre-figuring Mayhew's "London Labour and London Poor", except this is virtually entirely visual. Here we find peddlers of every stripe (dog meats, artwork, doormats, earthenware, roasting jacks, matches, etc.), con-men, musicians. The backdrops are often stately Georgian structures, and there is a gentleness and joyfulness to some of the depictions that marks a small departure from the acerbity of some caricatures of the day and even some of Rowlandson's own work. While the faces are decisively un-realistic, there is a sense of movement in many of the images that is real, and one does get a sense of how things really must have been from this collection of plates. Condition: some spotting on the red straight-grained morocco on the front board by spine. Generally clean and tight.