Hunt, William Henry (1790-1864)

William Henry Hunt, (English, 1790-1864) was one of the most popular English watercolor artists of the 19th century. He first gained fame at the annual Spring Exhibitions of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours with a long series of children depicted in humorous situations. At about the time Hunt was transitioning to the painting of highly detailed, naturalistic still life watercolors, some of his more popular genre subjects were engraved and published in an oversized volume, entitled Hunt's Comic Sketches, 1844. In several instances the humor was only to be found in the juxtaposition of the image and the titles Hunt selected for use in connection with the illustrated works. Unfortunately, the size of the book of bound engravings was so large that, with the deterioration of the bindings over time, almost all copies fell apart. The book was published in two editions, a regular edition with 21 monochrome engravings, which originally sold for the large price of 4 guineas (the equivalent of more than $1,000 in current dollars). There was also an edition with hand colored plates/engraving and several images which were not included in the regular edition. The hand-colored edition sold for the huge price of 10 guineas [an average laborer at the time made about 15 guineas a YEAR]. The high price undoubtedly accounts for the extreme rarity today of the deluxe edition. I know of only one complete, bound copy of the regular edition (I finally obtained a complete copy with pages that are detached from the binding in 2020). The only copy known to me of the hand-colored edition is no longer bound. The loose plates from that volume are in the print room of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.