Chapter XX: Canto IV (4)

_J. N._ had once thoughts of adding a list of the copies made from the works _of Hogarth_; but finding them to be numerous, beyond expectation, has desisted from a task he could not easily accomplish. This pursuit, however, has enabled him to suggest yet another caution to his readers. Some of the early invaders of _Hogarth's_ property were less audacious than the rest; and, forbearing to make exact imitations of his plates, were content with only borrowing particular circumstances from each of them, which they worked up into a similar fable. A set of _The Rake's Progress_, in which the figures were thus disguised and differently grouped, has been lately found. But since the rage of collection broke out with its present vehemence, those dealers who have met with any such diversified copies, have been desirous of putting them off either as the first thoughts of _Hogarth_, or as the inferior productions of elder artists on whose designs he had improved. There, is also a very small set of _The Rake's Progress_, contrived and executed with the varieties already mentioned; and even this has been offered to sale under the former of these descriptions. Thus, as _Shakspeare_ says, _While we shut the gate upon one_ imposition, _another knocks at the door_.

It may not be impertinent to conclude these cautions with another notice for the benefit of unexperienced collectors, who in their choice of prints usually prefer the blackest. The earliest copies of _Hogarth's_ works are often fainter than such as have been retouched. The excellence of the former consists in clearness as well as strength; but strength only is the characteristic of the latter. The first and third copies of _The Harlot's Progress_ will abundantly illustrate my remark, which, however, is confined to good impressions of the plates in either state; for some are now to be met with that no more possess the recommendation of transparency than that of force. I may add, that when plates are much worn, it is customary to load them with a double quantity of colour, that their weakness, as far as possible, may escape the eye of the purchaser. This practice the copper-plate printers facetiously entitle--_coaxing_; and, by the aid of it, the deeper strokes of the graver which are not wholly obliterated, become clogged with ink, while every finer trace, which was of a nature less permanent, is no longer visible. Thus in the modern proofs of _Garrick_ in _King Richard III._ the armour, tent, and habit, continue to have considerable strength, though the delicate markings in the face, and the shadows on the inside of the hand, have long since disappeared. Yet this print, even in its faintest state, is still preferable to such smutty impositions as have been recently described. The modern impressions of _The Fair_, and _The March to Finchley_, will yet more forcibly illustrate the same remark.

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To the original paintings of _Hogarth_ already enumerated may be added a Breakfast-piece, preserved in _Hill-Street, Berkeley-Square_, in the possession of _William Strode_, Esq; of _Northaw, Herts_. It contains portraits of his father the late _William Strode_, Esq; his mother Lady _Anne_ (who was sister to the late Earl of _Salisbury_), Colonel _Strode_, and Dr. _Arthur Smith_ (afterwards Archbishop of _Dublin_).

ADDITION.

_Four Times of the Day_, p. 250.

It should have been observed, that the third of these plates was engraved by _Baron_, the figure of the girl excepted, which, being an after-thought, was added by our artist's own hand.