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Hogarth prints at Chetham's

Detail from a self portrait by Hogarth
More images are available below

Recent cataloguing work has turned up a new discovery of engravings and etchings by William Hogarth (1697-1764). The collection appears to have belonged to the Manchester collector John Legh Philips, whose library and collection of prints and paintings was sold after his death in 1814. The collection is contained in a large scrapbook measuring 63 x 47 cm. A total of 190 prints have been pasted onto both sides of fifty leaves on paper which has now become acidic and brittle. The prints themselves have been cut down, but in most cases without affecting the impression of the plates.

The work begins with : Ebenezer Forrest, An account of what seemed most remarkable in the five days peregrination of the five following persons, viz. Messieurs Tothall, Scott, Hogarth, Thornhill, and Forrest. Begun on Saturday, May 27th, 1732, London: printed for R. Livesay,1782, containing 10 pages of letterpress and aquatints based on Hogarth's drawings, published well after Hogarth's death, and then proceeds to both large and small engravings, including many of his best known works, and also a number of early works undertaken as book illustrations. For the most part the prints are good early impressions, taken during Hogarth's life and thus subject to his artistic control. The scrapbook includes among others, complete sets of the key works of the Hogarth canon - An Election Entertainment (1758), Marriage a la Mode (1745), A Rake's Progress (1735), A Harlot's Progress (1732), The Four Times of the Day (1738), Beer Street, Gin Lane (1751), Stages of Cruelty (1751), and Industry and Idleness (1747). In addition, there are a number of engravings after Hogarth by other artists and a wealth of minor material.

At this stage we are carrying out some dry cleaning of the prints before they are separated from the backing leaves and then cleaned and deacidified. A decision as to the final form in which they will be kept has yet to be taken but as soon as the conservation work is complete, the prints will be catalogued and made available to library users.