What is it about looking a gift horse...

My wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary on July 4th (you may have noticed the nation-wide festivities - parades, picnics and fireworks - we grow more flattered each year). My parents gave us a strangely wonderful gift...a complete set of Hogarth prints (a early reprint (c.1821-32) of the 1732 etchings), beautifully hand-colored. The slightly questionable aspect comes from the series choice: A Harlot's Progress. We asked my parents (that is, I asked my parents) if there was something to be read into this...they of course, denied it (and claimed that they both knew that was what I would say *g*).

Truth be told, this series hung on the central hall staircase in the home I grew up in for decades but has been "away" since they moved to the cape on the ocean. They are stunning and now hanging up our front stairs. They are so typical of his work...and exceptional to look at (though, admittedly, the "come to the city at 18, die of an STD by 23 (after prison) is pretty harsh). The series was so well received that he followed with the equally uplifting (and brilliantly executed) Rake's Progress.

It is, needless to say, a lovely gift that we will treasure...may they last as long on our front stairs as they did my parents. Better still, giving us (read, Suzanne), "A Harlot's Progress" as a gift will be the source of inappropriate family jokes for many, many years.