Scarce Scenes From a 19th C. Courtship & Marriage

by Stephen J. Gertz

Marriage is a wonderful institution. 

But who wants to live in an institution?

 - Groucho Marx

Young cupid held a council, by lover's vows he swore
He'd hold up for example, a pair of lovers more;
By lovers' vows he swore it, young Charles in love should fall,
and so arranged that very night that he should meet the ravish'd sight
of Julia at a ball.

Thus begins A New Matrimonial Ladder, a gentle satire published c. 1853 on the progress of love at first sight toward nuptials, the chains of matrimony, later disillusion, reproach and estrangement, followed by reconciliation and happiness ever after.

Admiration.

Agitation.

Eighteen hand-colored engravings illustrate fifty-five quatrains on the courtship and marriage of Julia and Charles, a young lady and gentleman in the mood for love, pronto.

Approbation.

Flirtation.

Little is known about its writer, Edward Concanen, beyond that OCLC records five books authored by him, all, as here, issued by Read & Co., a London second-tier publisher who partnered with Ackermann, the great color-plate book and print publisher.

Declaration.

Acceptation.

Of the book's illustrator, however, we know quite a bit.

"Thomas Onwhyn (1814–1886), illustrator, was born in Clerkenwell, London, the eldest son of Joseph Onwhyn, a bookseller and newsagent at 3 Catherine Street, the Strand, London, and his wife, Fanny...

Solemnization.

Possession.

"Thomas Onwhyn came to public notice by his contribution of a series of ‘illegitimate’ illustrations to works by Charles Dickens. He executed twenty-one of the whole series of thirty-two plates to The Pickwick Papers, which were issued in eight (though intended to be in ten) monthly parts by E. Grattan, 51 Paternoster Row, London, in 1837; they are for the most part signed with the pseudonym Samuel Weller, but some bear Onwhyn's initials. 

Rumination.

"From June 1838 to October 1839 Grattan issued a series of forty etchings by Onwhyn, illustrating Nicholas Nickleby. In a letter of 13 July 1838 Dickens referred to ‘the singular Vileness of the Illustrations’ (Letters of Charles Dickens, 1.414). He objected to piracy but not to imitation and was friendly with Charles Selby, the author of Maximums and Specimens of William Muggins (1841), which was also illustrated by Onwhyn (ibid., 2.332). After his death an additional set of illustrations to The Pickwick Papers made by Onwhyn in 1847 was discovered and they were published in 1893 by Albert Jackson of Great Portland Street, London.

Alteration.

"Onwhyn's most lasting contribution was to the ephemeral end of the book trade in the 1840s and 1850s, illustrating the comic side of everyday life. Undertaken for shadowy publishers such as Rock Bros and Payne, and Kershaw & Son, he produced a score of pull-out or panorama books, coloured and plain, lithographed or etched for the popular market. Satirizing tourism, teetotalism, and fashion, they included Etiquette Illustrated (1849), A New Matrimonial Ladder (c.1850), What I Saw at the World's Fair (1851), Mr and Mrs Brown's Visit to the Exhibition (1851), A Glass of Grog Drawn from the Bottle … (1853), Cupid's Crinoline (1858), Nothing to Wear (1858), and Scenes on the Sands (c.1860).

Disputation.

"He signed his work T. O., O., or with the pseudonym Peter Palette, as in Peter Palette's Tales and Pictures in Short Words for Young Folks (1856). He sometimes etched the designs of others—for example, Oakleigh, or, The Minor of Great Expectations by W. H. Holmes (1843). He was an indifferent draughtsman but showed real humour in his designs. His talent was somewhat overshadowed by those of his most eminent contemporaries such as George Cruikshank and Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). Onwhyn, who also drew views of scenery for guidebooks and illustrated six novels by Henry Cockton, abandoned artistic work, becoming a newsagent for the last twenty or thirty years of his life" Simon Houfe, Oxford DNB).

Detestation.

The engraver of the plates, Charles Hunt, flourished during the 1830s-1860s as a renowned aquatint engraver and etcher of sporting prints, Engen's Dictionary of Victorian Engravers, Print Publishers and Their Works devoting a full page to Hunt and his oeuvre.

Separation.

There is some question regarding the correct date of publication. A penciled note to the title page of the copy before me declares 1853; the English Catalog of Books suggests 1840-1849; the DNB c. 1850; COPAC notes the copy at Oxford c. 1860. We throw out the ECB low of 1840; it is far too early. The 1853 date feels just right.

Reconciliation.

The New Matrimonial Ladder is quite rare, with OCLC/KVK recording only six copies in institutional holdings worldwide. ABPC notes only one copy at auction within the last thirty-seven years, in 2004.

Matrimonial Ladder! Or Such things are.
Drawn by M. E. Esqr. Engrav'd by G. Hunt.
London: Thos. McLean, 26 Haymarket, n.d. [1825].

A new matrimonial ladder implies an old one and, indeed, approximately twenty-five years earlier, in 1825, Matrimonial Ladder!, by M. E. (Michael Egerton), was issued featuring hand-colored aquatints illustrating the very same stages of courtship and marriage that Concanen and Onwhyn would later interpret in their New Matrimonial Ladder: "Admiration," "Flirtation," "Approbation,"  "Declaration," "Hesitation," "Agitation," "Acceptation," "Solemnization," "Possession," "Rumination," "Alteration," "Alteration," "Irritation," "Disputation," "Desperation," "Detestation," "Separation," and "Reconciliation."

Tailpiece - New Matrimonial Ladder.

All's Well That Ends Well
Look Before You Leap

 A 21st century reinterpretation of Matrimonial Ladder would have to include modern rungs not found in these earlier editions: "Online Dating," "The Hook-Up," "Cyber-marriage," "Break-up by Text Message," "Divorce Court," "Bitter Child Custody Case Played Out In Public," "Revenge Porn," "Mutual Murder For Hire" followed by "Copping a Plea" and finally "Burying the Hatchet," the whole saga posted on YouTube for viral distribution.

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CONCANEN, Edward. ONWHYN, Thomas (illustrator). A New Matrimonial Ladder. With Twenty Illustrations, Designed by Onwhyn - Engraved by Charles Hunt. London: Read & Co… Ackermann & Co., n.d. [1849-1860].

First edition. Quarto (10 1/2 x 7 3/4 in; 268 x 198 mm). Unpaginated. Twenty hand-colored  plates, including extra title and tailpiece, heightened with gum arabic, with fifty accompanying verses.

Not in Tooley or Abbey.

English Catalog of Books, Vol. 1, p. 161.

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.

You can read the complete text of The New Matrimonial Ladder here.
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Scarcer Than A Battleship In A Bathtub

by Stephen J. Gertz

A copy of James Ralfe's Naval Chronology of Great Britain in the original parts has come to market. A book of incredible scarcity in its original twelve installments 1818-1819, only one copy has been seen at auction within the last fifty-three years, in 1960, according to ABPC. The chances of seeing another in the original parts anytime soon are slim to none. The rare 1820 three-volume first edition in book format is commonplace by comparison.

It's a foundational historical account of British naval and maritime events from the beginning of the Napoleonic wars in 1803 through the War of 1812 to the end of 1816, illustrated with sixty magnificent hand-colored aquatint engravings. James Ralfe (fl 1818-1829) was a respected naval historian.

As such, it is an invaluable reference on the British Navy during the period under review, with the plates based on drawings by officers, many of whom were participants in the naval battles:  T. Sutherland, F.C. Lewis, D. Havel and others after T. Whitcombe, J. Beresford, W.A. Armstrong, J. Gore, and W. Hill.

"The object of this work is, more particularly, to perpetuate the names of those individuals who have, by their talents, courage, and professional abilities, increased the honour and reputation of the British Navy, and secured the peace and independence of the Country.

 "It will form a complete Naval History from 1802 (the time at which Captain Schomberg's Chronology terminates) to 1817, under the form generally acknowledged to be the most convenient for an historical work of reference. From the arrangements which have been made, it is expected that the work will answer every purpose of information not only to gentlemen of the Navy, but to those who feel an interest in the naval events of the last fourteen years; while the correctness of the drawings, the superior style of the engravings, and the neatness of execution, will render it worthy of the attention of every lover of the fine arts. Indeed, throughout the greatest pains will be taken to make this publication of the utmost utility, and deserving of general patronage" (rear wrapper).

Amongst the splendid hand-colored aquatints are images of the Battle of Trafalgar, the bombardment of Algiers, and more.

As if this copy in original parts wasn't special enough, it possesses important bibliographical points, not the least of which are early watermarking of the plates (1819; early issue) and printed plate inscriptions, i.e. "from a sketch by...,"  "from a plan by...". According to Abbey, plates later colored lack these inscriptions for genuine hand-colored plates, i.e. colored at time of issue. "Genuine colored copies are rare" (Tooley). The rear wrappers  state "Price to Subscribers 10s 6d plain, and 15s coloured."

This copy was stashed in the 1940s and forgotten in the vault of a bookselling firm in Europe until recently. While complete with all plates and the subscriber's list, the wrappers were distressed to one degree or another and those parts which bore the worst wear along the spine or edges, wrapper losses, loose plates, etc. were restored by master book conservator Bruce Levy who did an astonishing job that is almost invisible to the untrained eye.

The sinking of the H.M.S. Miasma, Trafalgar Motor Lodge, room 24, lavatory.

Pardon me. Battleships in bathtubs are not as scarce as I thought. But I think it safe to say that Ralfe's Naval Chronology of Great Britain in the original parts is almost as scarce as an aircraft carrier cruising the Sahara in search of Australian grass parakeets.

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RALFE, Mr. J[ames]. Naval Chronology of Great Britain. Or, an Historical Account of Naval and Maritime Events, From the Commencement of the War in 1803, to the end of the year 1816: also, Particulars of the Most Important Court-Martial, Votes of Parliament, Lists of Flag-Officers in Commission, and of Promotions for Each year: The Whole forming a complete Naval History of the above Period. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. London: Whitmore and Fenn, 1818.

First edition, early issue with plates watermarked 1819. Twelve original parts, 1818-1819, in tall octavo (10 1/8 x 6 7/8 in; 256 x 175 mm). Sixty "genuine" hand-colored aquatint plates (with printed inscriptions, i.e. "from a sketch by...,"  "from a plan by...,"), including frontispiece, with original tissue guards. Original buff printed wrappers, restored and/or renewed.

Abbey, Life 342. Tooley 392. Sabin 67602. Howes R21. Cf. Prideaux, p. 348 (book edition).

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, currently offering this item, with our thanks.
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A Scarce Libation: Bacchus, Rumfusticus Bibulus, and R. Cruikshank

by Stephen J. Gertz

Meeting of Victuallers.

 "The Publicans, as well as every other branch of the community, were aware that recent improvements in modern science had effected a Rail Road from this Earth to the Moon, in which part of the Isle of Sky Bacchus has an airy summer residence; they therefore resolved to send up by the new Steam Coach, one of the Victualler Chiefs, to invite their jovial Patron down to head their forces, and to fight their battles with their foes, The Tee-Totallers" (from the Introduction).

Steam Coachman To The Moon.

This very amusing, curious little satire is comprised of six anti-temperance drinking-songs each with an accompanying hand-colored aquatint plate by Robert Cruikshank. It appeared when the temperance movement in England began in earnest, an effort that was "a major cause for social reform  in Victorian Britain" (Rebecca Smith. The Temperance Movement and Class Struggle in  Victorian England. Loyola University).   At the time of its publication in 1841 Robert Cruikshank, who shared a "deep fraternal bond" (Patten, p. 216) with his celebrated brother, George, was already deteriorating from alcoholism. 

Bacchus At Home.

George, in the same year, contributed the etchings to John O'Niell's poem,  The Drunkard. Though not yet a committed tee-totaller, his faith in drink was shaken (not stirred), and in 1847 he committed himself to the cause of abstinence with his grim moral tale in caricature, The Bottle.

Meeting Of Tee-Totallers.

In the next year, 1848, George Cruikshank, now a temperance zealot,  produced a sequel in eight plates, The Drunkard's Children. Robert remained firmly on the side of anti-temperance.

Commencement Of Hostilities.

Regarding Robert Cruikshank, George "could not cow his brother into signing a pledge; Robert lapsed deeper and deeper into chronic alcoholism" (Patten, p. 315). He died in 1856.

Departure Of The Victualler Chief For The Combat.

The original binding for Bacchus and the Tee-Totallers was executed by Robert Riviere in green cloth with a blindstamped frame and large corner-pieces enclosing a gilt vignette by Robert Cruikshank loosely reproducing his plate, Steam Coachman to the Moon. 

"Riviere was the top of the line and this small satirical volume must have had an important backer to finance a custom Riviere binding and six aquatinted plates by Cruikshank" (Princeton University, Graphic Arts).

An important backer who did not wish to see his libations become as scarce as this book has become, a committed anti-temperance man of means.

Only one copy has come to auction since 1968. OCLC/KVK record only eight copies in institutional collections worldwide, with none, curiously, in the U.K. The Widener copy at Harvard is  partially uncolored, and two institutional copies have been rebound.

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[CRUIKSHANK, Robert]. Bacchus and the Tee-Totallers by Rumfusticus Bibulus, Esq., President of the Anti-Temperance Society. London: Sherwood, Gilbert, And Piper, 1841.

First edition. Octavo (8 1/2 x 7 1/8 in; 218 x 178 mm). 19. {1, blank] pp. Six hand-colored aquatint plates with later tissue guards loosely inserted. 

Original binding by Robert Riviere (per Princeton & Yale Universities) in green cloth with blindstamped frame and large corner-pieces enclosing a gilt vignette loosely reproducing the plate, Steam Coachman to the Moon.

Widener Collection, p. 235. Not in Abbey, Tooley, or Prideaux.
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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
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Of related interest:

Robert Cruikshank Devastates Dandies.
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