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A Trifling Discovery (Primary Title)
Sporting Discoveries; or The Miseries of Shooting (Series Title)

Henry Thomas Alken, English, 1785–1851 (Artist)

1822 or later
English
Works On Paper
Prints
Hand-colored etching on wove paper with a watermark: J WHATMAN / 1822
European Art
Sheet: 10 7/8 × 14 3/4 in. (27.62 × 37.47 cm)
Plate: 8 7/8 × 11 3/4 in. (22.54 × 29.85 cm)
Image: 6 3/4 × 10 1/4 in. (17.15 × 26.04 cm)
Other (matted): 16 × 22 in. (40.64 × 55.88 cm)
85.1302.4
Not on view
Printed beneath image in center: A TRIFLING DISCOVERY. / Having mark'd a Bird over the Hedge, you make towards it with rather too much speed, fall over one of your Pointers (good for nothing) / and shoot your favorite old Bitch which you had consider'd invaluable, you then Discover, that had you been careful of common sporting / rules, (to carry your Gun on Half Cock, keep your Dogs at Heel as you go to Fence) all this would not have happened./ London, Published Feby. 1st, 1816, by S & J.Fuller, 34, Rathbone Place. Inscribed in graphite on verso, upper left: "Watermark / 1822"; in center: "HRH 12 / 12A" and "47" (in circle).
Paul Mellon Collection
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC

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