After Thomas Williamson (1758-1817) and Samuel Howett (British, 1765-1822) -Driving a Bear out of Sugar Canes, Hand Coloured Aquatint

After Thomas Williamson (1758-1817) and Samuel Howett (British, 1765-1822)

Plate No 28 ‘Driving a Bear out of Sugar Canes’

Hand Coloured Aquatint

Taken from Oriental Field Sport, first published 1807, this from a later second edition

Published by Edward Orme, 1819, London

Plate 24 x 17 cm

Frame 44 x 39 cm

This hand-coloured aquatint, based on Captain Williamson’s sketches and executed by Samuel Howitt (via artists such as H. Merke), depicts an Indian black bear being flushed out from dense sugar cane crops. The bear is shown cornered and alarmed, while a group of hunters—on horseback, elephant-back, and on foot—close in with hounds and rifles.

Plate 28 is one of the 40 magnificent hand‑coloured aquatints in this famous volume, showcasing the diverse fauna and hunting practices of colonial India. It aligns with other bear-related plates—Plate 27 (Driving a Bear out of Sugar Cane) and Plate 29 (Death of a Bear)—forming part of a mini‑narrative within the book

Plate 28 originally appeared in the first edition (1807) of Oriental Field Sports—the landmark folio universally celebrated by collectors and scholars as “the most beautiful book on Indian sport in existence” The series draws heavily on Williamson’s Indian experience, with Howitt translating those observations into finished imagery. This plate is taken from a later, second edition published in 1819. In very good condition but some light foxing marks, specifically below the left most hounds at the foreground of the picture. The hand colouring has been a little heavy handed in the top right of the picture, where the blue sky has been applied with too much water. In a smart bird’s eye maple style frame.