Chorus of Singers.

William Hogarth

Chorus of Singers.

London, J and J Boydell ca 1806

Copper engraving

187x164mm.

£220

From the collection of George Morant, (1770 – 1846) of 95 Wimpole St, London. A very fine set on mostly uncut sheets kept loose in a folio. Carefully printed and in very good condition.

Morant was a collector and Founder of a business of paper hangers, carvers, gilders and picture frame makers.

The company had offices at 88 Old Bond St,  from 1814, and was appointed as ‘house decorator, carver, gilder & picture-frame-maker to His Majesty’. From 1832 he was appointed again by Her majesty Queen Victoria

The engraving shows a rehearsal for the oratorio Judith, written by William Huggins with music by William Defesch. It was performed in February 1732 at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, after a postponement due to the ‘Misconduct and Pretended sickness of Cecilia Young, who had ingaged for the Part of Judith’. The Conductor, whose agitated movements have shaken off his periwig, conducts from a paper inscribed Judith: An Oratorio or Sacred Drama. Sadly the piece was a failure and the manuscript has since been lost. Paulson 127.