1754.
1. Crowns, mitres, maces, &c. A subscription-ticket for the Election entertainment. This print has been already described. See p. [39]. The engraved forms of a receipt annexed to it do not always agree. In one copy (which I suppose to be the eldest) it contains an acknowledgement for "Five Shillings, being the first payment for a print representing an Election Entertainment, which I promise to deliver, when finished, on the receipt of five shillings and sixpence more." The second is for "one guinea, being the first payment for four prints of an Election, which I promise, &c. on the receipt of one guinea more." The third for "fifteen shillings, being the first, &c. for three prints, &c. on the payment of sixteen shillings and sixpence more."
2. Frontispiece to Kirby's Perspective.[1] Engraved by Sullivan. Satire on false perspective. Motto, "Whoever maketh a design without the knowledge of Perspective, will be liable to such absurdities as are shewn in this frontispiece." The occasion of engraving the plate arose from the mistakes of Sir E. Walpole, who was learning to draw without being taught perspective. To point out in a strong light the errors which would be likely to happen from the want of acquaintance with those principles, this design was produced. It was afterwards given to Kirby, who dedicated Dr. Brook Taylor's Method of Perspective to Mr. Hogarth. The above anecdote is recorded on the authority of the gentleman already mentioned. The plate, after the first quantity of impressions had been taken from it, was retouched, but very little to its advantage. Mr. S. Ireland has the original sketch.
[1] "This work is in quarto, containing 172 pages, and 51 plates, in the whole; with a frontispiece designed and drawn by Mr. Hogarth. 'Tis a humourous piece, shewing the absurdities a person may be liable to, who attempts to draw without having some knowledge in perspective. As the production of that great genius, it is entertaining; and, though abounding with the grossest absurdities possible, may pass and please; otherwise I think it is a palpable insult offered to common sense, and tacitly calling the artists a parcel of egregious blockheads. There is not a finished piece in the book, but the mason's yard and the landscapes; so that I question if the whole of the plates were forty pounds expence. It was first printed for himself at Ipswich, dedicated to Mr. Hogarth, and published in the year 1754."
Malton, Appendix to Treatise on Perspective, p. 106.