antique prints, maps and watercolors

(Hound and Huntsman) ...Work of Animals... London: Edward Orme, 1811. $175.00

click for detailed image aesopridersvlg.jpg

“The Hound & Huntsman”

A beautifully engraved aquatint from A New Work of Animals Principally Designed from The Fables of Aesop, Gay, and Phaedrus.  A young puppy thinks he has picked up the scent. The pack knows he’s wrong and ignores him, but he persists to howl in vain, convinced that they are ignoring him out of jealousy. The huntsman punishes him: “When puppies prate’, the huntsman cried, ‘they show both ignorance and pride: fools may our scorn, not envy raise, for envy is a kind of praise. Had not they forward noisy tongue proclaimed thee always in the wrong, thou might’st have mingled with the rest, and ne’er thy foolish nose confess’d…
John Fay Fable: But fools, to talking ever prone, Are sure to make their follies known.’

8 ¼ x 10 ¾ inches, sheet
Handcolored aquatint engraving.
Excellent condition save single spot of foxing in margin.