Live Auction 29281TDCR-492 With 202 lot
Christie’s roundel
Lot 299

Henry Thomas Alken, Sen. (London 1784-1851)

A set of eight studies of hunting scenes, including four designs for 'Fores’s Sporting Scraps', with 'Hunting', a set of four engravings on one sheet by J. Harris after the drawings, held together in a box; and an album of approximately 29 drawings of sporting subjects by Henry Alken Sen., with four other drawings by Samuel Alken, two by George Alken, and one by Henry Alken Jnr.

Closed31 August 2025

Estimate

GBP 2,000–3,000

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Henry Thomas Alken, Sen. (London 1784-1851)
A set of eight studies of hunting scenes, including four designs for 'Fores’s Sporting Scraps', with 'Hunting', a set of four engravings on one sheet by J. Harris after the drawings, held together in a box; and an album of approximately 29 drawings of sporting subjects by Henry Alken Sen., with four other drawings by Samuel Alken, two by George Alken, and one by Henry Alken Jnr.
variously signed and inscribed
pencil, some with watercolour
9 3⁄8 x 13 ¼ in. (23.7 x 33.5 cm.) and smaller; the album 15 x 21 in. (38.1 x 53.3 cm.) and the box 15 ¼ x 20 ¾ in. (38.7 x 52.7 cm.)(2)

C.F.G.R. Schwerdt (purchased in his sale, 27 June 1939, some lot 1189).
Joel Spitz.

Specialist note

When sold in 1939, these fox-hunting sketches were originally mounted in a morocco-bound volume containing 20 drawings by Alken. They correspond to nos. 13-20 in the Schwerdt catalogue and are described there as being ‘the original drawings for eight out of a set of twelve prints.’ While they are undoubtedly a set, it is not clear from the bibliographies if all were actually published by Fores in the Sporting Scraps series. Schwerdt III, p. 198; Siltzer p. 74.