Subjects by Edwin Landseer. Etched by John Landseer, Thomas Landseer, and Edwin Landseer

RA Collection: Book

Record number

05/1218

Variant Title

Landseer's Early Compositions
Early Compositions

Imprint

[London:]: Paul & Dominic Colnaghi & Co., 13&14, Pall Mall East., Nov. 8th. 1852. Publishers to her Majesty.

Physical Description

[12] leaves of plates (incl. t.-pl.): [1] illus.; 678 mm.

Contents

[T.pl.] - [11 leaves carrying 18 prints].

Responsibility Note

All plates are signed as drawn by Edwin Landseer (the last two, as painted by him), and as engraved by him or Thomas Landseer or J. (or T?) Landseer. Only plate [8a] does not carry the name of an engraver.

The title-plate vignette is signed as drawn by Edwin Landseer and engraved by John Landseer.

Each plate carries the publishers' imprint of P. and D. Colnaghi and the date (Nov. 8 1852).

Summary Note

The plates show some of the earliest drawings and etchings of Landseer - his signature on the plates sometimes being followed by the words 'in his 8th' [or '9th' or '10th'] 'year'. All are animal subjects - lions, tigers, sheep and rams, cows and bulls, dogs, donkeys, goats, hogs and boars - and a few carry captions: [2b] [a dog] 'Old Brutus, The Property Of W.W. Simpson', [[8a] 'A British Boar', [8b] 'A French Hog', [9] 'An Alpine Mastiff. The Largest Dog in England, brought from Mount St. Bernard, and now at Leasowe Castle near Liverpool ...', [10] 'A French Hog, The Property of Mr. Bacon of the Black Boy Inn, Chelmsford', [11] 'A British Boar, The Property of C.C. Weston Esqr. M.P. for the County of Essex'.

Copy Note

The plates have been numbered (in an order different from that in which they appear here) in pencil in an unknown hand.

Binding Note

19th-century quarter morocco, green cloth-covered boards, upper cover and spine lettered 'Landseer's Early Compositions'.

Name as Subject

Subject

Animals - Dogs
Drawings - Great Britain - 19th century
Pictorial works - Etchings - Great Britain - 19th century

Contributors

Sir Edwin Landseer RA, source artist, draughtsman, engraver
John Landseer ARA, engraver
Thomas Landseer ARA, engraver
Paul Colnaghi, publisher
Dominic Charles Colnaghi, publisher
Colnaghi and Company, publisher