The Cockpit

William Hogarth

The Cockpit

London, J Boydell ca 1806

Copper engraving

325x390mm

£450

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

A scene at the Cockpit Royal, Birdcage Walk. The central figure is the blind (his ragged neighbour is stealing a banknote) Lord Albemarle Bertie, second son of the 2^nd Duke of Ancaster, and a member of one of the most wealthy and powerful aristocratic clans in England. The crowd is the usual mixture of gentlemen and riff raff, all frantically betting on the two fighting cocks in the centre of the ring. The Royal Cockpit was first built by Charles II, but in 1810 Christ’s Hospital refused to renew the lease and a new building was constructed in Tufton Street, Westminster . Paulson 206, only state.