The matter reversed

“The Duchess of Devonshire sits astride a galloping fox, her face to its tail. A signpost by the fox’s head points (left) ‘To Cuckolds Hall’; on the top of the post is a pair of horns. The Duchess wears a hat trimmed with ostrich feathers and with a ribbon inscribed ‘Fox'”– British Museum online catalogue.

• Title: The matter reversed, or, One good turn deserves another [graphic].
  
• Publication: [London] : Pubd. May 24, 1787, by J. Notice, Oxford Road, [24 May 1787]

Catalog Record 

787.05.24.02+

Acquired October 2018

Run neighbours, run, St. Al-ns is quadrilling it

“The Duchess of St. Albans, immensely fat, florid, and bejewelled, and a stout elderly naval officer wearing loose wide trousers, and apparently doing hornpipe steps, his hands on his hips, dance side by side with rollicking abandon. The others of the set: one man and two ladies on the left and one lady and two men on the right dance rigidly erect, and watch the central pair with hauteur; the men are dandies, the women slim and fashionable. The duchess has a swirling paradise-plume in her towering loops of hair, above tossing ringlets.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  
• Title: Run neighbours, run, St. Al-ns is quadrilling it [graphic] / [man with an umbrella] Esq.
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket, May 1829.

Catalog Record 

829.05.00.08+

Acquired October 2018

The fair in an uproar

With a large woodcut below the title and preceding the letterpress text: Madamoiselle Javellot is shown on stage flanked on either side by chandeliers wtih her performing dogs in costumes in front and a musician in the background, left, behind the curtain.

• Title: The fair in an uproar, or, The dancing-doggs : as they perform in Mr. Pinkeman’s new opera in Bartholomew Fair.
  
• Published: London : Printed and sold by J. Morphew, near Stationers Hall, [1707?]

Catalog Record

707.00.00.01

Acquired September 2018

A short ride in the Long Walk, or, The ponies posed!!

“George IV drives Lady Conyngham in a four-wheeled pony-chaise. He is chubbily obese, in loose trousers and braided jacket, wearing a cap poised on his naturalistic curls (cf. British Museum Satires no. 14637). He turns to the enormously corpulent lady. Both overweight the little chaise, and the very small ponies strain desperately. Behind and on the extreme left is the head of the horse ridden by an attendant. They have just passed a gate with a small octagonal lodge. The drive is bordered by a paling; in the background are stags.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  
• Title: A short ride in the Long Walk, or, The ponies posed!! [graphic].
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. March 28, 1824, by S.W. Fores, 41 Picadilly [sic], London, [28 March 1824]

Catalog Record

824.03.28.01+

Acquired October 2018

Irish M.P.’s

An Irish schoolmaster-priest, sits in a chair taking a pinch of snuff from an open snuff box as he catechizes a dwarfish Irish peasant, ragged and barelegged, who answers with a sly grin: ‘O’C — for O’Connell thats right–now Pat what does MP stand for eh?’ Answer: ‘Mealy Potato’. On the table to the right is a crucifix used to prop open a book. Cf. British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  
• Title: Irish M.P.’s [graphic] / [man with an umbrella] Esqr.
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket …, [1829]

Catalog Record 

829.00.00.112+

Acquired October 2018

A kiss at the congress

“Louis XVIII, grotesquely obese (left), and the Tsar kiss, their lips touching. Louis, whose head is much the larger, grasps the back of Alexander’s head; the Tsar bends from the waist to reach beyond the King’s paunch. Louis, with the gouty legs and old-fashioned gold-embroidered coat and waistcoat of English caricature, wears the order of the Saint Esprit. The Tsar, in uniform, has the high pinched waist and bulging breast of the dandy (cf. British Museum Satires No. 13029) with enormous cavalry boots to the thigh, huge epaulets, and a sash, but no sword. He says: “My Dear Legitimate Brother (tho I believe I call Boney the same) I am happy to serve you tho your cursed Country Men almost destroyed my country–” Louis answers: “Ma Chere [sic] Ami, I am so rejoiced at your Brotherly Kindness in putting off our payment & takeing off your Troops that I could Devour you.” The embrace is watched by two Frenchmen on the left, and on the right by the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria, and a young man (? Napoleon’s son). Frederick William wears dandified uniform like that of the Tsar but with long trousers; he supports a large sword hanging from a belt, and holds a huge cocked hat; he watches the embrace with distaste, saying, “I am obliged to follow the Leaders at Present.” Francis I says: “I must agree for the moment but I have a Grandson.” One Frenchman wears uniform with top-boots; he says: “De Legitimate francais be too much for John Bull de manoeuvre by Gar ve want de Time & we show dem vat ve intend.” His companion, an elderly man wearing a court suit with a powdered wig (Richelieu attended the Conference on behalf of France) says delightedly: “Ah-ha he do him vid Compliments & den we do them out of the Money.” Behind them is a row of melancholy knock-kneed Grenadiers.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  
• Title: A kiss at the congress [graphic] : a legitimate embrace at Aix la Chapelle between Alexander the Great and Louis the Large, & others of the dramatis persona.
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. Nov. 18, 1818, by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilli [sic] & 114 Oxford Street, [18 November 1818]

Catalog Record 

818.11.18.01+

Acquired October 2018

Slugs in a saw-pit hell to pay

“Two timorous duellists face each other at close quarters in a saw-pit, trembling and dropping their weapons, namely pistol and blunderbuss; each has a heap of weapons at his feet: sabres, rapier, pistol, more blunderbusses. The hair of both rises on their heads. One (left) is in uniform, the other (right), who is smaller, wears fashionable civilian dress with tasselled Hessian boots. A scroll extends above their heads inscribed: ‘Did you mean to Offend me? indeed Sir not I.–indeed Sir I’m very glad on’t!!!’ A spectator (right) looks over the edge of the pit, holding a bowl from which he blows soap bubbles, which float over the head of the civilian. The bubble in the pipe is inscribed ‘Puff’, suggesting a publicity campaign.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  
• Title: Slugs in a saw-pit hell to pay, or, The direful courage of Dolla Lolla [graphic].
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. Jan. 1810 by S.W. Fores, Picadilli [sic], [January 1810]

Catalog Record

810.01.00.01+

Acquired October 2018

Modern aquatics

“A Thames wherry passes close to the wall of a riverside tavern, and is about to go under a high timber bridge. The two oarsmen have immense artificial-looking whiskers and curled hair, cf. British Museum satires no. 15962, no hats, and wear striped shirts, open at the neck, nautical in cut. They row a lady who sits erect in a grotesquely huge hat, with wide brim, high jam-pot crown, and towering ribbons. They row badly and carelessly. In waterside arbours spectators drink and smoke. On the extreme left steps lead to the water, and two more amateur oarsmen, looking like buccaneers, stand, while a boatman in waders holds the bow of a boat. Behind are urban houses.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  
• Title: Modern aquatics [graphic] / [man with an umbrella] Esq. del.
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket, London, [ca. 1829]

Catalog Record 

829.00.00.113+

Acquired October 2018

The man wots got the whip hand of ’em all

“A hand printing-press of metal (a Stanhope Press), supported on the stout legs of a man in breeches which seem to belong to a John Bull, puts to flight mere pigmy humans: two flee to the right, one propelled by a kick from a huge buckled shoe; two others have fallen. Two levers or handles serve as arms; one has a hand which grasps a giant pen, the feather entwined with three serpents which spit flame at the departing legs and cocked hat of Wellington, who, kicked into the air, disappears behind the upper right margin of the design. Another pair of legs, with the black stockings and buckled shoes of Eldon, project from the upper left margin; beside them a single leg and a broom indicate the departing Brougham. A second lever supports a print, ‘The Man Wot Drives The Sovereign’, copied from British Museum satires no. 15731; a flame issues from the press, threatening to scorch or destroy the print. The press is topped by a cap of Liberty inscribed ‘Free Press’ and encircled with a wreath. A little demon (a printer’s devil) rushes towards the press from the left, holding up a big ink-ball.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  
• Title: The man wots got the whip hand of ’em all [graphic].
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. May 30th, 1829, by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket …, [30 May 1829]

Catalog Record 

829.05.30.01+

Acquired October 2018

Jubilee Fair

“View of the Jubilee Fair in Hyde Park; in foreground to left a small stage erected with a band playing and jesters performing, a small crowd stands in front, a few tents in central foreground with signs such as “Duke of Wellington Whitbreads Intire”, and on a lamp “Dancing and Singing Here”; beyond a crowd stands by river bank watching a sham sea fight, many sailing ships on water with smoke billowing from the scene, on the opposite river bank the fair continues.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Title: Jubilee Fair [graphic].
  
• Publication: [London] : Published Sept. 10, 1814, by J. Pitts, No. 14 Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials, [10 September 1814]

Catalog Record

814.09.10.01++

Acquired September 2018