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The progression of a race horse through successive stages of life, with 7 hand-coloured plates

ALKEN, Henry.
[The seven ages of the horse].
London, S. & J. Fuller, 1825. Oblong 4to (28.4 x 38.2 cm). With 7 hand-coloured etched plates. Red half morocco, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. [7] ll.
€ 6,500
A rare and important work by Henry Alken (1785-1851) showing the progression of a race horse through successive stages of life, at one point pampered and adored, at another rejected and scorned by man. In this re-working of The High Mettled Racer, Alken extends the stages of a horse's life from six to seven, in line with Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man. He shows the seven stages: the foal, the colt, the race horse, the hunter, the harness horse and the horse after all this, ending with the horse in his last days. The common thread in this series of plates is the evolution from a fiery and strong race horse to a poor, weakened old horse.
Expert repairs to plate corners, light marginal finger-soiling, occasional browning, plates 2 and 4 with very minor marginal tears with two very small repairs to versos. Dixon 80; Mellon; 62; Tooley 48.
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Related Subjects:

Horses, hunting, sport & games  >  Horses & Horsemanship