2nd Oct, 2024 12:00
Drawings and Watercolours from the Iolo Williams Collection
87
GEORGE MOUTARD WOODWARD (BRITISH 1760-1809)
A BOOKLET TITLED A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE WATERING PLACES OR CHARACTERS SCRUTINIZED REPRESENTED IN EIGHT METAMORPHIC SKETCHES BY G.M. WOODWARD
eight caricatures, each signed and inscribed
pen and ink and watercolour
ten pages including the front cover and title page
together with eight further humorous caricatures by the same hand each signed and variously inscribed with titles including:
An Unwelcome Visitor, Fashionable Furbeloes, A Sudden Emotion, Convocation Day (or a Nest of Parsons), Fashionable Amusements for Young Ladies, The Throne of Avarice (or The shrine of the Muse), A Favourite Cat Choking with a Fishbone and A Caricature of a Bas Relief
each signed and inscribed
various sizes, all unframed
(8 individual sheets and a booklet containing 8 caricatures plus front cover and title page)
Literature
Iolo Williams, Early English Watercolours and Some Cognate Drawings by Artists Born Not Later Than 1785, 1952, Plate CXIII, Fig. 232, George Moutard Woodward, A Favourite Cat choaked with a Fish Bone, 1790
George 'Moutard' Woodward was a caricaturist and humorist in the manner of H. Bunbury. Born in Derbyshire in 1760, he came to London in around 1791 to 1792 where he achieved popularity with his social satires. He was also known as ‘Mustard George’ and 'George Murgatroyd Woodward'. From around 1794 to 1807 Woodward designed numerous caricatures which were engraved by such artists as Isaac Cruikshank (William Cruikshank's father), Charles Williams, Piercy Roberts, Richard Cooper, and other satirical artists of the period. Many of his designs were also etched by his close friend and constant drinking companion, Thomas Rowlandson. He lived a dissolute life and died in poverty in a public house in 1809. George Moutard Woodward is often credited with the invention of the modern form of comic strip.
Sold for £7,000
A BOOKLET TITLED A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE WATERING PLACES OR CHARACTERS SCRUTINIZED REPRESENTED IN EIGHT METAMORPHIC SKETCHES BY G.M. WOODWARD
eight caricatures, each signed and inscribed
pen and ink and watercolour
ten pages including the front cover and title page
together with eight further humorous caricatures by the same hand each signed and variously inscribed with titles including:
An Unwelcome Visitor, Fashionable Furbeloes, A Sudden Emotion, Convocation Day (or a Nest of Parsons), Fashionable Amusements for Young Ladies, The Throne of Avarice (or The shrine of the Muse), A Favourite Cat Choking with a Fishbone and A Caricature of a Bas Relief
each signed and inscribed
various sizes, all unframed
(8 individual sheets and a booklet containing 8 caricatures plus front cover and title page)
Literature
Iolo Williams, Early English Watercolours and Some Cognate Drawings by Artists Born Not Later Than 1785, 1952, Plate CXIII, Fig. 232, George Moutard Woodward, A Favourite Cat choaked with a Fish Bone, 1790
George 'Moutard' Woodward was a caricaturist and humorist in the manner of H. Bunbury. Born in Derbyshire in 1760, he came to London in around 1791 to 1792 where he achieved popularity with his social satires. He was also known as ‘Mustard George’ and 'George Murgatroyd Woodward'. From around 1794 to 1807 Woodward designed numerous caricatures which were engraved by such artists as Isaac Cruikshank (William Cruikshank's father), Charles Williams, Piercy Roberts, Richard Cooper, and other satirical artists of the period. Many of his designs were also etched by his close friend and constant drinking companion, Thomas Rowlandson. He lived a dissolute life and died in poverty in a public house in 1809. George Moutard Woodward is often credited with the invention of the modern form of comic strip.
Auction: Drawings and Watercolours from the Iolo Williams Collection, 2nd Oct, 2024
A unique auction comprising the collection of 18th and early 19th century British watercolours, once belonging to connoisseur and author Iolo Aneurin Williams (1890-1962). Williams wrote the definitive collectors's guide 'Early English Watercolours' in 1952. Having been kept safely - in storage boxes under a bed - this will be their first appearance on the market for more than 60 years and in some cases much longer.
Iolo Williams was a museums and art critic for The Times from 1936 onwards and an avid collector. Born in Middlesborough, he lived in Hindhead in his youth and latterly in Kew, south-west of London, and formed his collection from the 1930’s to the 1950’s when unidentified drawings could be picked up for a modest price from dealers and auctions. Through diligent research, he identified many works as being by leading exponents of the golden age of British drawings and watercolours: artists such as Thomas Girtin, Richard Wilson, William Payne, John Varley and Paul Sandby. He also discovered and put on record other artists about whom little was then known.
In 1952 he published his monumental and highly influential work Early English Water-Colours, and Some Cognate Drawings by Artists Born Not Later Than 1785' which listed and discussed works by 600 British draughtsmen. Arts writer Huon MallaIieu, in his own essential book for collectors Understanding Watercolours of 1985, describes it as “both a labour of love and scholarship undertaken by one of the most civilised and knowledgeable collectors of his day, it gradually became not only essential reading, but a collector’s item in its own right for cognoscenti” and “a joy to read”.
The auction is a rare opportunity for collectors, both seasoned and new, to enjoy the sort of experience Williams would have had of looking through folders of mixed, unframed drawings and watercolours in which hidden gems could be discovered.
Contact Suzanne Zack for further information about this auction | suzanne.zack@olympiaauctions.com | + 44 (0) 20 7806 5541
Viewing Times:
29th Sep 2024 12:00 - 16:00
30th Sep 2024 10:00 - 20:00
01st Oct 2024 10:00 - 17:00
