[Wood engraved blocks for Hogarth's The rake's progress] [realia].

Two engraved boxwood printing blocks cut with copies of the first two plates from William Hogarth's The Rake's Progress, possibly produced for an edition of Hogarth's Graphic Works that was never completed. A reduced copy of another print by Thompson depicting a third scene from The rake's progress is mentioned in: Chatto, W.A. Treatise on wood engraving, historical and practical. London : Chatto and Windus, [1881].

The first block (a copy of Plate 1 from A Rake's Progress), engraved by Allen Robert Branston, depicts the Jacobean interior of the house of Tom Rakewell's late father: Tom is being measured for a new suit as he gives a handful of coins to the pregnant Sarah Young; behind him sits a lawyer compiling inventories whilst stealing from the coins on the desk; on the floor are boxes of miscellaneous goods, piles of mortgages, indentures, bond certificates and other documents; an old woman brings faggots to light a fire and an upholsterer attaching fabric to the wall reveals a hiding place for coins which tumble out. A later (probably late-19th or early-20th century) handwritten paper label on the side of the block reads: "R. Branston. Bewick pupil Fac. of W. Hogarth, J Bewick & Thurston O. & B. 3/6".

The second block (a copy of Plate 2 from A Rake's Progress), engraved by John Thompson, shows a new fashionable interior with Tom, in elegant indoor dress, surrounded by tradesmen vying for his custom: a poet, a wigmaker, a tailor, a musician at a harpsichord, a fencing master, a prizefighter with quarter-staffs (said to be James Figg), a dancing master, a landscape-gardener (said to be Charles Bridgeman), a bodyguard, a huntsman and a jockey. A later (probably late-19th or early-20th century) handwritten paper label on the side of the block reads: "W Hogarth - Rake's Progress Thompson".