Set of three Tiger hunting prints from "Oriental field sports"

a) Henri Merke after Captain Thomas Williamson
A tiger killed by poisoned arrow (Le Tigre tue par une fleche emposionnee)
1818
Colour aquatint on paper
13.25 x 17.5 in (34 x 44.5 cm)

Published by T McLean, October 1818

Depicting a green mountainous landscape with a tiger in the foreground lying helplessly after being fatally wounded by a poisoned arrow.

b) Henri Merke after Captain Thomas Williamson
A Tiger Prowling through a Village (Un Tigre Traversant un Village in Hurlant Quete)
1819
Colour aquatint on paper
13.25 x 17.5 in (34 x 44.5 cm)

Published by T McLean, October 1819

c) Henri Merke after Captain Thomas Williamson
Killing Game in Boats (Chasse au Gibier en Bateaux)
1818
Colour aquatint on paper
13.25 x 17.5 in (34 x 44.5 cm)

Published by T McLean, October 1818

Depicts a scene of a tiger being hunted by many armed men on boats.

Williamson served in a Bengal European Regiment for twenty years until 1798 when he was ordered home for reasons that are still uncertain. Part of the decision was definitely linked to his criticism of the Company's military policy through the publication of a letter in the Calcutta Telegraph and perhaps also because of his liberal views.

"Oriental Field Sports" merged the knowledge of India acquired by Williamson during his time there with the fine pictorial skills of Samuel Howitt. These prints are a complete, detailed, and accurate description of the sports of the East, and of Indian wildlife. In addition to the images, curios and original anecdotes complete the descriptions. As Williamson wrote in the preface: the work "is offered to the public as depicting the Manners, Customs, Scenery, and Costume of a territory now intimately blended with the British Empire, and of such importance to its welfare, as to annex a certain degree of consequence to every publication, that either exhibits, or professes to impart, a knowledge of whatever may hitherto have been concealed, or that remains unfolded to our view." The aquatints in these lots are dramatic depictions of both the chase and Indian scenery.

These prints were delineated by Samuel Howitt from the original design of Captain Thomas Williamson and engraved by Henri Merke.

Henri Merke was a Swiss aquatint engraver of sporting, genre and costume subjects after works by contemporary artist. He is thought to have been born in Zurich, but he worked in London.

(Set of three)

This work will be shipped unframed

NON-EXPORTABLE