Eleven (of 12) original antique prints by William Hogarth, Industry and Idleness

Size: Individual full sheets 49 x 64 cm, plates 1-10 26.5 x 34.5 cm to platemark, plate 12 40.5 x 27 to platemark. 

Condition: Very good condition overall, better then usual, and they are strong impressions. There is a water stain at the bottom of each sheet, which just affects the bottom left hand corner of plates 2,4,6 and 8. A few very light fox marks to the top margin of plates 1 and 3. Some marginal tears, only the bottom of plate 8 is affected. 

A nearly complete set of prints from the original engraved plates (not a later copy) by William Hogarth, one of Britain's greatest 18th century artists.

This set of prints is only lacking plate 11 which showed the idle apprentice executed at Tyburn. Hogarth's 1747 series Industry and Idleness was perhaps the most blatant of his "moralising" works. 

The twelve plates tell the story of an industrious apprentice and an idle one and shows how the former came to wealth and happiness and the latter to an ignominious death. Each print is accompanied by a Biblical quotation to illustrate the moral. Hogarth did not engrave this series after his own paintings - they were an original set of prints, and sold more cheaply than some of his earlier print series. Despite Hogarth's obvious intention to highlight the benefits of a virtuous life, it appears that he took more relish on depicting the more sordid life of the idle apprentice. 

These impressions are on stout wove paper and come from the Heath edition, which was first published by Baldwin Cradock and Joy in 1822. These are probably c1840, not later. For more details, see Paulson, Hogarth's Graphic Works, 1989.