December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024
Two fine, framed sepia 1802 aquatint views (each 11 7/8 x 9 3/8 in.) of the British Army in the field during the Napoleonic epoch, both early strikes from Pyne’s “Microcosm:” The first, “Army. Plate I” was published on 1 March 1802 and is the first plate from a serialized series that ultimately totaled 121 prints; it consists of two views, the first “An army on the march, with baggage-wagon laden with the various camp equipage, and carrying tired soldiers, women and children”, with the second being a view of a wagon being loaded after a stop at “an ancient building converted into an alehouse…serving out beer and other liquors to the thirsty and fatigued soldiers…while a party of drum-boys and fifers were playing to amuse a cluster of rustics, drawn together by curiosity to view the novelties of the scene.” The second, “Army. Plate II” (published 1 April 1802) contains three views of field artillery, the first showing horse artillery advancing at full gallop, the second and third being a heavier piece of the foot artillery being transferred from horse-drawn status of a march to advancing across the battlefield, the gun now drawn by artillery matrosses with dragropes. William Henry Pyne (1769-1843) was an English artist and writer who first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790 and was a founding member of the Royal Watercolour Society (1804). He specialized in picturesque settings which included groups of “rustic” people (farmers, sailors, craftsmen, etc.) rendered in pen, ink and watercolor. His most important published work was “Microcosm: or a Picturesque Delineation of the Arts, Agriculture and Manufactures etc. of Great Britain in a Series of above a Thousand Groups of small Figures for the Embellishment of Landscape etc.”, published in serial installments in 1803 and later, as a book compilation in 1806 (later reprinted in two volumes by Ackerman in 1820-22). CONDITION: very good, not examined outside of frames.