T he C o m m ittee on Publications o f T he Grolier Club certifi es th at this copy o f a Catalogue o f Books illus trated by Thomas Rowlandson is o ne o f an edition o f two hundred copies on Van Gelder ! onen h an d in the h o fD b I I 6 made paper , printed mont ecem er, 9 . TH O M AS R O W LA ND SO N H erm an Melville An exhibition o books f , ’ letters manuscn ts , p openfree to the p u blic ' Febru ary 1 9-Ap rzl 4 - Wee s 0 ¢. m . m kday 1 5 p . - a . m Saturdays 1 0 m. 3 p . THE GR OLI E R C LUB 47 EAST SI X TIETH STRE ET o i h 1 1 6 b C pyr g t , 9 , y T H E GR O LI E R C LUB o r T H E C I T Y O F NE W Y O R K DEC27 ln ! 0LA4 4 8 9 5 5 W l NO TE ’ TH OMA S R OW LANDSON S li fe and work cover the formative period o f English social ca ricature , as he was 1 6 born in July , 7 5 , eight years before the death o f Hogarth , and died in 1 8 2 April , 7 , eight years be fore the ’ publication o f John Leech s E tc hing s n k tc hin s a d S e g . Leaving the schools o f the Royal Academy at the age o f sixteen , he spent two yea rs in a Pa ri sian ateli er , a fter which he returned to London and the Academy , only to go again to Paris . In 1 777 he set up in London a s portrait painter , but his early bent for caricature and his a p petite for li fe caused him to spend much o f hi s time rambling on the Continent and about the E nglish countryside , sketching landscape , men and manners . Sometime in the ea rly eighties he seems definitely to have thrown in his lot with Gillray and Bunbury, and therea fter to have N OTE made his living from caricature . In 1 8 0 9 he began work for Acker ’ P o e tic a l Ma a z ine mann s g , starting that series o f book illustrations by which he is p r o b a bly most popularly - remembered to day . We are told o f his aimless wan dering about the country , o f hi s indo lence and dissipation , o f hi s gambling and high living , and o f the reproba tion with which his habits o f li fe were rega rded by the good peopl e o f hi s day , but undoubtedly it i s to j ust these things that we a re indebted fo r the ma rvellous record which he l eft o f the England he knew , perhaps the most important contribution to our knowledge o f the manners o f the Englishman during . the extr a o r di nary years from 1 78 0 to 1 8 2 5 . Hi s predecessors and contempo ra ri es as ca ricaturists vacillated be tween heavy moralizing and savage sati re , the monotony o f which was reli eved only by raucous laughter . Rowlandson , with hi s academic train ing and his soj ourns in the Pa ri s o f l e Fr eu d eb er Moreau j eune , g and viii N OTE D ec ebucourt , however , escaped the centriciti es and insulariti es o f his fel lows and brought to hi s work the sure hand and smiling appreciation o f manners and costume that have ever since been the distinguishing trait o f English soci al caricature . Without him it may well be doubted whether the Leech and Doyle , the Keene and Du M aurier we know would ever have existed . E n lis h M r . Martin Hardi e in his g C o l o u r ed B o o k s gives the following account o f the manner in which Row l a nds o n p roduced many o f his book illustrations and sheets o f carica tures “ For the colouring o f aquatints a publi sher had to keep a number o f workmen occupied in this particular . in task Rudolph Ackermann , for a f stance , ha d large sta f o f engravers and colourists working continually at his R epository o f Arts . The magni tude o f the work will be best realized by considering what the issue o f a c o o single book meant . The Mi r c s m o Lo nd o n f , for instance , contains one ix NOTE hundred and four plates and one thousand copi es o f the book were published . This means that for this one book alone at least plates were separately coloured by hand ; and any one who has studied Acker mann ’s books knows with what uni form excellence this colouring was done , and to what a high degree o f finish it frequently attained . Let us consider for a moment how one o f ’ R o wl a nd s o n s coloured plates for thi s work would b e produced The a rtist was summoned to the R epository from his lodgings in James Street , a in the Adelphi , and supplied with p - per , reed p en , Indian ink , and some - china saucers o f water colour . Thus o ff equipped , he could dash two cari c a tu r es for publication within the day ; but in the case o f the coloured books he worked with greater care . With hi s ra re certainty o f styl e , he made a sketch , rapid but inimitable . This he etched in outline on a copper plate , and a print wa s immediately prepared for him on a pi ece o f draw - ing paper . Taking his Indian ink , he added to this outline the delicate tints NOTE that expressed the modelling o f the i f gures , and the shadowing o f inte riors , a rchitecture , o r landscape . The copper plate was then handed to one ’ o f Ackermann s numerous sta ff o f en — Elu c k gravers , Stadler , Havell , and the rest . When Rowlandson returned in the a fternoon he would find the shadows all dexterously trans ferred to the plate by means o f aquatint . Taking a proo f o f this o r his own shaded drawing , the a rtist completed it in those light washes o f colour which a re so peculia rly his own ; and this tinted impression was handed as a copy to the trained staff o f colour ists u n , who , with yea rs o f practice der Ackermann ’ s p ersonal super vision , ha d attained superlative ” skill . In the following catalogue the books a re divided into two classes those containing illustrations designed by Rowlandson ( who in most cases seems to have done the etching a s well , at l east to the extent described above ) , and those which Rowlandson engraved a fter the designs o f fellow a rtists . The dates on prints quoted xi N OTE in the catalogue re fer to the copies exhibited , but have been found to b e uni form in all copies o f given books which have been examined unless otherwise stated . To thi s la rge -paper edition o f the catalogue a re added a list o f the drawings by Rowlandson which were exhibited , and a brief summary o f book illustrations by him , or attrib u te d to him , not included in the ex i n hibit o . The Committee on Arrangements takes pl easure in acknowledging the a ssistance o f the Ha rry Elkins Widener M emorial Library at Ha r va rd in allowing a thorough examina tion o f its wonderful Rowlandson col lection . Any va riations discovered by this further comparison o f copies a re noted in the catalogue . Aside from the members o f the club who have generously contributed thei r colle e tions , the committee has especially to thank M rs . George D . Pratt , M r . John E . M adden , M r . J . Pierpont Morgan , M r . H . L . R . Edga r , and M r . G . D . Smith . C O NT E N TS PAC E A L PH A B E T I C A L LI ST O F B O O K S E XH I B I T E D xvii I L L UST R A T I O N S D E S I GN E D B Y R O W L A ND S O N I L L UST R A TI O N S E X E C UT E D B Y R O W LA ND SO N A FT E R D E S I GNS B Y O TH E R A R T I ST S I L LUST R A T I O N S I N T H E M A NN E R O F R O W L A N D S O N D R A W I NGS P PE I — U A I O B Y O R A N D X I L L ST R T NS , A I B U E T O R O A O NO T TT R T D , WL N D S N , I N C L UD E D I N T H E EX H I B ITI O N LI ST O F R E PR O D U CTI O N S Vignette from the title-page o f The Thi rd Tour o f D octo r Syntax , in Sea rch o f a Wi fe ” N 2 ( O .