Landseer's Etchings

London, England: E. Gambart & Co., 1848. First Edition . Half-Leather. Good Minus. Elephant Folio - over 15" - 23" tall. Landseer, Edwin. Landseer, Sir Edwin Henry [1802- 73]. India paper etchings by Landseer, England's most famous animal painter/etcher. A number of the etchings are signed [initialled] by the artist. "Proof before the number at top right hand corner." Lacking a title page or text pages. Undoubtedly a first edition by Gambart, no date stated but published in 1848. This marks the first time when these prints were published in collated form by anyone. No limitation statement, but Allibone states that 100 copies issued in 1848. Contemporary medium brown half leather, with boards of marbled paper. Hubbed spine with gilt-stamped title. The binding is quite worn, there are large losses at the spine head and tail, and the joints are split. A.E.G. Volume about 19 x 13 inches, and containing 17 copper-plate etchings by Landseer. The prints were created between 1822 and 1826, and all were etched by the artist himself. [Quite a few Landseer prints were etched, lithographed or engraved by others.] N 1 Return from deer stalking [1826]; N 2 Game card [1825], a later state with ruled lines and heading Woburn Abbey; N 3 Game card [1825], ditto; N 4 Landscape, a doorway under a tree in front water with a swan, Signed [/s/] EL [1825]; N 5 The sweeps, /s/ EL [1822]; N 6 The frog [AKA Dogs worrying a frog], /s/ EL 1822; N 7 Low life [1822]; N 8 The traveller's rest [1825]; N 9 The mountain torrent, /s/ EL [1825]; N 10 The watchman, /s/ EL 1825; N 11 The four dogs [heads] [AKA four Irish greyhounds], /s/ EL 1825; N 12 The donkeys, /s/ EL 1824 & Old horses, /s/ EL 1821[?], the two on one plate; N 13 The ladies' pets, /s/ EL 1823; N 14 The beggar, /s/ EL [1824]; N 15 The warren, /s/ EL 1826; N 16 The eagle, /s/ EL 1825; N 17 Highland shepherd's dog, /s/ EL 1824, possible later state with background retouched by J. Landseer, the artist's father. These are etchings pulled on India paper using the chine-collé process to bond the etchings on to thick, heavy under-sheets. As to most plates, a warm beige background color behind the image. Each sheet 48 x 32 cm. Most sheets with the Gambart blind-stamp in the lower margin. All sheets with tissue guards. The sheet margins are all quite foxed but, as to the impressions themselves, many of the images have scant foxing, perhaps on account of the putative overlay. A few of the images with moderate to pronounced foxing, especially N 1. Mounted to the front FEP is a handwritten note, "This beautiful Series of Etchings by Mr. Edwin Landseer, the great painter of Animal Life, were etched by him nearly Thirty years since. Single impressions before their publication for sale in 1848 have been sold for eight and even ten guineas each, so highly were they prized. Few impressions having been taken from the plates previously to publication rendered them highly prized curiosities to Amateurs." No doubt Landseer pulled etchings from the copper plates between the time of making each copper plate and 1848, the first publication year. Quantity and distribution unknown but believed quite limited. Though etchings by Landseer are far from numerous the engravings and etchings after his works are otherwise. It became the fashion in the second half of the 19th century to collect these. An interesting association copy. Front pastedown with the handsome armorial bookplate of John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick [1770-1859]. Lord Northwick was an English peer, a prominent landowner and a collector of art works. It seems highly likely that he would have acquired this Landseer publication new. Sources: The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts. No. 1101, December 2, 1848; Mr. Algernon Grave's Catalogue of the Works of Sir Edwin Landseer, London, 1875; Engravings and Their Value: A Guide for the Print Collector, by John Herbert Slater. Gill, London, 1897. 2nd ed.