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"A Study the Inhabitants of the Roundhouse and the Regular Attendants at the Police-Court" A Journey in Caricature through Early Nineteenth Century England… WOODWARD. George Moutard. CRUIKSHANK, Isaac, illustrators. Eccentric Excursions, or, Literary & Pictorial Sketches of Countenance, Character & Country, in different parts of England & South Wales. Interspersed with Curious Anecdotes, Embellished with upwards of One Hundred Characteristic & Illustrative Prints. London: Allen & West, 1796. First edition. Quarto (10 1/4 x 8 inches; 261 x 203 mm.). [ii], [i], ii-iv, [i]-iv, 5-217, [1, list of plates] pp. Engraved title-page (included in pagination) Hand colored frontispiece and 100 hand-colored etched plates (on ninety-nine leaves) by Isaac Cruikshank after Woodward, including three folding plates (Plates 1, 2, and 3). First folding plate with small portion 92/8 x 2 inches) missing from fore-edge; second folding plate with neatly repaired marginal tear; third folding plate expertly repaired at folds and backed with linen. Plate 9 with small tape repair to verso of blank fore-edge; small inkstain on top blank margin of pp. 37/38 and following two plates. Some occasional light staining to text leaves only. Bound ca. 1820 in three quarter brown calf over marbled boards, ruled in gilt. Spine with five decoratively tooled in gilt raised bands, lettered in gilt in top panel. Early ink signature of Mary Austen on top blank corner of title-page. With the armorial bookplate of the noted collector Jacobus Cowan de Rosshall on front pastedown. Tip of spine chipped. Overall an excellent copy of this journey in caricature through early nineteenth century England. Aside from the aforementioned this is a very good example with the hand coloring rich and bright and far superior to the later editions. This satire, amongst Moutard's earliest work, enthusiastically depicts all types: high- and low-born, rural and urban, lawyers and peddlers, coaching scenes, misadventures on ice-skates, Oxford dons, gypsies, etc. "The first and most celebrated of Woodward's books. The text describes an idiosyncratic ramble around the counties of England and Wales." (Gordon, p. 15). George Moutard Woodward (1760?-1809) was "prolific and popular designer of social caricature much in the style of Banbury, etched chiefly by Thomas Rowlandson and Isaac Cruikshank.[his caricatures] display a wealth of imagination and insight into character.extremely entertaining" (DNB). "Another popular caricaturist of the day was George Moutard Woodward, commonly called Mustard George. Woodward, according to his friend [Henry] Angelo, was the son of a land agent and spent his youth in a country town, where nothing was less known than everything pertaining to the arts. A caricaturist in a country town, said Mustard George, like a bull in a china shop, cannot live without noise; so, having made a little noise in my native place, I persuaded my father to let me seek my fortune in town. Thanks to a small allowance from his father, supplemented by his own earnings, George was able to enjoy life in his own Bohemian fashion, and ultimately took up his quarters at the Brown Bear, Bow Street, where he was able to study the inhabitants of the roundhouse and the regular attendants at the police-court. At the Brown Bear he died suddenly, departing in character with a glass of brandy in his hand, and was long mourned by his tavern associates. In his Eccentric Excursion[s], which appeared in volume form in 1796 (the designs engraved by Isaac Cruikshank), there are several domestic subjects, such as The Polite Congregation, Showing Family Pictures, and The Formal Introduction. Among other popular designs by Woodward are Raffling for a Coffin, The Club of Quidnuncs, Babes in the Wood, A Goldfinch and his Mistress…and a series called Six Ways of Carrying a Stick. The majority are marred by extravagant hideousness, but Angelo was of opinion that had this low humourist studied drawing and be.
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