Doe and Hope

Description

From Angelo Domenico’s (1717?-1802) renowned fencing manual "L'Ecole des Armes" the engraving marked plate number 44 and presented in a 19thC ebonised reeded frame showing ‘De la garde epagnole combattie après la parade du coup d’estramafson plate 44 publish’d according to act of parliament Feb. 1763” by London R. & J. Dodsley in 1763.

The engraving is in very decorative and unrestored condition. There is soiling and foxing but we love the overall feel. It has not been meddled with in any way shape or form and to the reverse it shows the picture gallery label of Lambert & Co Picture Frame Manufacturers, Knightsbridge London. The frame has knocks and wear but is beautiful and suits the picture very well. The frame is probably mid 19thC in date. The text to the plate roughly translates to “Spanish guard fought after the parade kick plate 44 publish'd selon act of parliament Feb. 1763.”

During the eighteenth-century, fencing was a popular sport among the English royalty and aristocracy, primarily learned on the Continent until the Italian fencing master Domenico Angelo Malevolti Tremamondo established his fencing school in London. A riding instructor by trade, Angelo was born in Leghorn, Italy in 1716 and briefly trained with the celebrated fencer Monsieur Teillagory in Paris. After arriving in England in 1755, he participated in and won several public fencing matches, quickly earning a reputation that helped him secure high-ranking clients such as the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Pembroke. He soon capitalized on his popularity by establishing Angelo's School of Arms, where he taught horsemanship as well as fencing to an affluent and fashionable clientele. Angelo also continued to teach privately and in 1758, instructed the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. Over the years, his school became a venerable British institution, which was run by successive generations of the Angelo family until the early twentieth-century.

In 1763, Angelo published L'Ecole d'Armes, a respected fencing handbook comprised of beautifully illustrated plates by renowned English artists like Chamber, Gwyn and Ryland depicting principal fencing positions, and esteemed by many as the ultimate authority on fencing.

This work elegantly and decoratively portrays all the balance, fluidity and movement that you’d associate with the sport. Beautiful.