EARLY AMERICAN SPORTING LITHOGRAPHY
[ALKEN, Henry.]
The Beauties & Defects in the Figure of the Horse, comparatively delineated in a series of Engravings.
Boston, Carter & Hendee, 1830.
Small folio, pp. 2, [18], with lithographic title, lithographic diagram, and 18 lithographic plates by Pendleton; leaves cockled, very slight offsetting and toning, a few small marks to title; a very good copy in publisher’s plain cloth, lithograph on blue paper mounted to upper board; lightly worn and neatly rebacked.
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The Beauties & Defects in the Figure of the Horse, comparatively delineated in a series of Engravings.
First American edition, the second and scarcest overall. ‘The dominant sporting artist of the early nineteenth century’ (ODNB), Henry Thomas Alken (1785–1851) ‘showed an early liking for depicting animals, especially dogs and horses’, and ‘demonstrated his expertise in the book The Beauties and Defects in the Figure of the Horse’.
The work of William S. Pendleton (1795–1879), a pioneer of lithography in Boston, the lithographs are faithful copies of the London edition of 1816, but exhibit greater subtlety and exploit their medium with greater success.
OCLC records only seven institutional copies, all in the US. Not in Library Hub.
