Military Discoveries
- London: S & J Fuller, 1819
London: S & J Fuller, 1819. Scarce Misery in the Army
[ALKEN, Henry] TALLY-HO, Ben. Military Discoveries or, The Miseries of campaigning in a series of seven plates being Hints to Young Officers. London: S & J Fuller, March 24, 1819.
Oblong quarto (10 1/8 x 14 inches; 257 x 355 mm). Seven aquatint plates, uncolored, loose as issued and housed in a modern cloth portfolio with gilt-lettered black morocco title label and silk ribbon ties. Without title-page, as issued.
A rare and biting Regency military satire, almost certainly drawn by Henry Alken, here working under the pseudonym Ben Tally-Ho. In seven sharply observed scenes, the series dismantles the romantic expectations of young officers by presenting campaigning not as glory, but as discomfort, humiliation, danger, and farce.
The plates - issued individually rather than as a bound book - follow a newly commissioned officer through the realities of military life: sodden bivouacs, enforced family "reparations," transport-ship torments, battlefield mishaps, perilous dispatch riding, sudden night alarms, and ignominious capture by enemy foragers. Alken's genius lies in his ability to balance caricatural humor with genuine physical jeopardy, offering a satirical yet unmistakably truthful portrait of post-Napoleonic soldiering.
This work is exceptionally rare. OCLC/KVK records only three institutional holdings worldwide (University of London, Brown University, and the University of Michigan). The last recorded auction appearance was in 1961, more than half a century ago. Significantly, the series is absent from Tooley, Abbey, and the Le Vivier Library catalogue, the most comprehensive Alken collection ever assembled, underscoring its extreme scarcity and peripheral survival outside standard reference corpora.
Though often cited in references in a hand-colored state, the present example survives uncolored, a format consistent with early issue or economical distribution, and increasingly rare in its own right. As an ephemeral print series rather than a conventional book, survival was never intended.
A remarkable and elusive Alken military suite - of great appeal to collectors of Regency satire, British military iconography, and rare sporting prints - representing one of the sharpest anti-romantic statements on army life produced in early nineteenth-century graphic art.
The Plates:
1. In tasting the joys of bivouac you DISCOVER that in many parts of the Service the elegance of costume are not so much attended to.
2. On getting into a love affair, you DISCOVER that the numerous parts of the family assisted by some professional gentlemen are determined to revenge the supposed injury...
3. Having been but little time on board the Transport you DISCOVER that after your many lessons and long patience on riding you are but ill qualified to ride the Wooden Horse with any chance of comfort to yourself.
4. On recovering from a swoon you DISCOVER it was occasioned by your horse being shot under you...
5. Having volunteered to carry dispatches through the Enemy's Country you DISCOVER that you have a chance of amusement all the way in observing repeated parties of Gentlemen who are out Man Shooting.
6. Being awoke by a violent noise, and rushing from your quarters, you DISCOVER your Colonel who commands you, immediately to resist a serious and unexpected attack made on the Camp by the Enemy, withut waiting for any additoinal Clothes.
7. Going to dinner at a neighboring Vila, you are interrupted by a party of the enemy's foragers, who after stripping you of Pelisses, great Coats &C. you DISCOVER they are determined to carry you to their quarters some thirty miles ahead.
Not part the Le Vivier Library catalogue, the most renowned collection of Alken. Not in Tooley. Not in Abbey.
Bobbins 340 (colored); Army Museums Ogilby Trust Index to British Military Costume Prints, 1500-1914, no. 44 (colored); Sterling Library IV, 24; Widener sale, November 28th, 1944, #10 (colored).
[ALKEN, Henry] TALLY-HO, Ben. Military Discoveries or, The Miseries of campaigning in a series of seven plates being Hints to Young Officers. London: S & J Fuller, March 24, 1819.
Oblong quarto (10 1/8 x 14 inches; 257 x 355 mm). Seven aquatint plates, uncolored, loose as issued and housed in a modern cloth portfolio with gilt-lettered black morocco title label and silk ribbon ties. Without title-page, as issued.
A rare and biting Regency military satire, almost certainly drawn by Henry Alken, here working under the pseudonym Ben Tally-Ho. In seven sharply observed scenes, the series dismantles the romantic expectations of young officers by presenting campaigning not as glory, but as discomfort, humiliation, danger, and farce.
The plates - issued individually rather than as a bound book - follow a newly commissioned officer through the realities of military life: sodden bivouacs, enforced family "reparations," transport-ship torments, battlefield mishaps, perilous dispatch riding, sudden night alarms, and ignominious capture by enemy foragers. Alken's genius lies in his ability to balance caricatural humor with genuine physical jeopardy, offering a satirical yet unmistakably truthful portrait of post-Napoleonic soldiering.
This work is exceptionally rare. OCLC/KVK records only three institutional holdings worldwide (University of London, Brown University, and the University of Michigan). The last recorded auction appearance was in 1961, more than half a century ago. Significantly, the series is absent from Tooley, Abbey, and the Le Vivier Library catalogue, the most comprehensive Alken collection ever assembled, underscoring its extreme scarcity and peripheral survival outside standard reference corpora.
Though often cited in references in a hand-colored state, the present example survives uncolored, a format consistent with early issue or economical distribution, and increasingly rare in its own right. As an ephemeral print series rather than a conventional book, survival was never intended.
A remarkable and elusive Alken military suite - of great appeal to collectors of Regency satire, British military iconography, and rare sporting prints - representing one of the sharpest anti-romantic statements on army life produced in early nineteenth-century graphic art.
The Plates:
1. In tasting the joys of bivouac you DISCOVER that in many parts of the Service the elegance of costume are not so much attended to.
2. On getting into a love affair, you DISCOVER that the numerous parts of the family assisted by some professional gentlemen are determined to revenge the supposed injury...
3. Having been but little time on board the Transport you DISCOVER that after your many lessons and long patience on riding you are but ill qualified to ride the Wooden Horse with any chance of comfort to yourself.
4. On recovering from a swoon you DISCOVER it was occasioned by your horse being shot under you...
5. Having volunteered to carry dispatches through the Enemy's Country you DISCOVER that you have a chance of amusement all the way in observing repeated parties of Gentlemen who are out Man Shooting.
6. Being awoke by a violent noise, and rushing from your quarters, you DISCOVER your Colonel who commands you, immediately to resist a serious and unexpected attack made on the Camp by the Enemy, withut waiting for any additoinal Clothes.
7. Going to dinner at a neighboring Vila, you are interrupted by a party of the enemy's foragers, who after stripping you of Pelisses, great Coats &C. you DISCOVER they are determined to carry you to their quarters some thirty miles ahead.
Not part the Le Vivier Library catalogue, the most renowned collection of Alken. Not in Tooley. Not in Abbey.
Bobbins 340 (colored); Army Museums Ogilby Trust Index to British Military Costume Prints, 1500-1914, no. 44 (colored); Sterling Library IV, 24; Widener sale, November 28th, 1944, #10 (colored).
Details
Title
Military Discoveries
Author
ALKEN, Henry; TALLY-HO, Ben
Condition
Unknown
Publisher
London: S & J Fuller, 1819