12 Humorous British Fishing Prints
John Leech, c. 1860

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Plate 1

Plate 1

 Plate 5

Plate 5

 Plate 2

Plate 2
Plate 3

Plate 3

 Plate 6

Plate 6

 Plate 4

Plate 4
Plate 7

Plate 7

 Plate 8

Plate 8
Plate 9

Plate 9

 Plate 10

Plate 10
Plate 11

Plate 11

 Plate 2

Plate 12
John Leech (1817-1864) (after)
Mr. Briggs & His Doings
Bradbury and Evans, 11 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, London: c. 1860
Hand-colored woodblock prints
13 x 8.5 inches, image
18.5 x 12.5 inches, overall
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

A rare fly fishing print portfolio by the prolific and popular Victorian caricaturist and illustrator John Leech, comprising 12 prints that depict a humorous pictorial account of Mr. Briggs and his fishing adventures.

Plate Captions:
Plate 1: Mr. Briggs contemplates a day's Fishing and practices with his running tackle.
Plate 2: Mr. Briggs won't have a man with him, as he thinks he can manage the Punt by himself!
Plate 3: Mr. Briggs tries for many hours a likely place for a Perch but on this occasion the Wind is not in a favourable quarter.
Plate 4: Assisted by his little boy Walter he catches a Jack, which to use Mr. B's own words, flies at him and barks like a dog.
Plate 5: Mr. Briggs is so fortunate as to Catch a large Eel.
Plate 6: Mr. Briggs, through the influence of a friend, has a day's spring fishing, wind north-east. Miller. "Don't they really! Perhaps they'll rise better towards the cool of the evening, they mostly do!"
Plate 7: His chief difficulty is, that every time he throws his line, the Hooks (of which there are five) will stick behind in his Jacket and Tr-ws-rs [sic]!
Plate 8: Mr. Briggs as he appeared from six in the morning until three in the afternoon trying for a Salmon!
Plate 9: Mr. Briggs having hooked a "FISH" is landed to play it, the Fish runs away with him, and Mr. B. is dragged about a mile and a half over what he considers a rather difficult country.
Plate 10: On arriving at "Hell's Hole" Mr. B. is detained for three quarters of an hour while the Fish sulks at the Bottom.
Plate 11: The Fish having refreshed himself and recovered his spirits, bolts again with Mr. B.
Plate 12: After a long and exciting struggle Mr. B. is on the point of landing his prize, when unfortunately the line breaks! * * * However, in much less time than it has taken to make this imperfect sketch, accoutred [sic] as he is he plunges in, and after a desperate encounter, he secures a magnificent Salmon, for which he declares he would not take a guinea a Pound!

John Leech was one of the most prolific and successful of the English artists and caricaturists of the mid 19th century. Although influenced by contemporaries such as Gillray and Cruikshank, his satirical depictions of society and the foibles of the middle and upper classes were described by one writer as "less grotesque, less boisterous, less exaggerated, nearer to the truth and to ordinary experience." However, he held fairly radical political views for his time, and also produced pointed drawings in favor of universal suffrage and questioning the morality of the capitalist system. In 1841, he was recruited by the newly founded Punch, and became a major contributor to the success of the magazine over the next twenty-three years, publishing a total 3,000 drawings and 600 cartoons there. He also produced illustrations for other magazines and for books including Surtees's sporting novels and Charles Dickens' first edition of A Christmas Carol. The influential Victorian critic John Ruskin wrote an appreciation of Leech's work upon his death in 1864: "John Leech's work contains the finest definition and natural history of the classes of our society; the kindest and the subtlest analysis of its foibles, the tenderest flattery of its pretty and well-bred ways, with which the modesty of subservient genius ever immortalised or amused careless masters."

References:

"Caricature and the Literature of Sport. Bibliography. Punch." The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes. Vol. 14. The Victorian Age, Part Two. 1907-21. Bartleby.com. http://www.bartleby.com/224/0600.html (9 January 2003).

"John Leech." Spartacus Schoolnet. 7 December 2001. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CHleech.htm (9 January 2003).