ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS. 



gallery is now for the first time published together 

 as a complete series. 



Ackermann favoured the sporting public with his 

 first illustrated edition in 1835; and the collection 

 proved successful beyond his expectations. The first 

 edition has long been rarissime ; it consists of but 

 no printed pages, and contains twelve plates by 

 Henry Aiken. So scarce is this version — a thin 

 little volume — that I do not remember to have seen 

 half a dozen copies in a lifetime. Its current value 

 may be estimated at fifteen guineas, though it would 

 not be possible to secure more than a fugitive copy 

 at that figure. The first series of twelve plates were 

 etched by the designer, Henry Aiken, and delicately 

 finished in aquatint in imitation of water-colour 

 drawings by another clever artist, E. Duncan. The 

 impressions were issued carefully coloured by hand 

 after the original aqicarclUs, and are by connoisseurs 

 esteemed highly superior examples of this class of 

 work, the closest facsintiles of the water-colour draw- 

 ings obtainable by the method of reproduction de- 

 scribed. But with all their excellence, they necessarily 

 fail to reproduce exactly those spontaneous and dash- 

 ing qualities, and the delightful feeling for landscape 

 which were the elder Aiken's specialities. 



