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 wedding day

“The fat, moustached, Duchess of St. Albans and the slim Duke dance with vigour and agility, each poised on the left toe, arms interlaced, and hands meeting above their heads. From the Duchess’s small coronet rise giant ostrich feathers which curve above the heads of both and above which a big ducal coronet is suspended. He sings: My Wife shall dance, And I will sing so merry we’ll pass this_ day. She: For I hold it one of the wisest things to drive dull care away–. The musicians are two cynical cupids; one (left) sits on large sacks of sovereigns inscribed Cash; coins pour from a slit in a sack and lie on the carpet with a banker’s money-scoop. He fiddles: Money in both pockets. The other (right), seated on the apex of a huge melon from which a slice has been cut, plays bagpipes: And auld Robin Gray [Coutts] was a gued Old Man to me! with variations.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Heath, Henry, active 1824-1850, printmaker.
  
• Title: The wedding day [graphic] / H. Heath delt
  
• Publication: [London] : [publisher not identified], published June 28, 1827.

Catalog Record 

827.06.28.01+

Acquired April 2017

The dance of the calumet of the sun

Depiction of the dance probably performed by the Illinois to strengthen peace between the tribes. The Calumet, a large pipe, was usually presented to the honoured guest. The tribe surrounds the circle in which two men dance with arrows above their heads; the circle includes arrangements of bows and arrows and tomahawks.

• Title: The dance of the calumet of the sun, or pipe of peace, performed on the most solemn occasions by the Indian nations in North America [graphic].
  
• Publication: London : Pub. by T. Tegg, Jany. 21, 1809.

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

809.01.21.01

Acquired July 2016

 

The flowing cann

In two columns with the title in a ribbon atop a woodcut below stanza one. Stanzas 2 and 3 below image. A sailor at a seaside tavern (Jack Ocum) dances with a young woman as he holds his tankard. The fiddle music is played by a man who stands beside a woman in the tavern doorway. In the distance on the right is a sailing ship and along the shore, two men in a row boat.

• Author: Dibdin, Charles, 1745-1814.
  
• Uniform Title: [Oddities. Song]
  
• Title: The flowing cann.
  
• Published: [London : Sold by J. Pitts, Great Saint Andrew St. ; Sold by C. Sheppard, Lambert Hill, Doctors Commons, Publish’d Septr. 18th. 1790?]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

790.09.18.01

Acquired October 2015

 

This plate (representing a negroes dance in the island of Dominica)

A couple dance together under a lush tree with large fruit hanging from its branches. They are accompanied by two men playing instruments, a drum and tambourine as one woman claps along to the music. Others, including a small girl, stand and converse.

• Printmaker: Brunias, Agostino, 1730-1796, printmaker, artist.
  
• Title: This plate (representing a negroes dance in the island of Dominica) is humbly dedicated to the Honble. Charles O’Hara, Brigadier General of His Majesty’s Army in America …. by his most obedt. & devoted servt.                 A. Brunias [graphic] / A. Brunias pinxt. et sculpt.
  
• Published: London : Published 15 Feby. 1779 by the proprietor N […] Broad Street, [15 February 1779]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

779.02.15.01

Acquired April 2014

A French family

Two couples — one middle age and the other youthful — dance in a shabby room.

• Printmaker: Alken, Samuel, 1756-1815, printmaker.
• Title: A French family [graphic] / T. Rowlandson delin. ; S. Alken fecit.

Catalog record & Digital collection

792.11.05.04++

Acquired November 2012

Comic dance in the popular pantomime of The white cat

“The clowns Kirby and Chatterley, one dressed in female costume, dancing.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
• Title: Comic dance in the popular pantomime of The white cat [graphic] : by Messr. Kirby & Chatterley to the tune of The bold dragoon / draw [sic] & etched by W. Heath.
• Published: [London] : Pub. 5th of Jany. 1812 by T. Palser, Bridge Road, Lambeth, [5 January 1812]

Catalog record & Digital collection

812.01.05.01+

Acquired November 2012

The last jig, or Adieu to Old England

A scene in a tavern cellar, with a young woman, gaily dressed, dancing a jig with a man wearing an apron; at left, a sailor playing the violin, at right, a sailor sitting on steps and leaning forward, smoking, resting his arms on a barrel, another beside him holding a bowl, a young woman standing behind them with a hand on the shoulder of each; behind, three amorous couples, including a sailor sitting on another barrel.

• Artist: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827.
• Title: The last jig, or Adieu to Old England [graphic] / Rowlandson del.
• Published: [London] : Publish’d January 20th, 1818 by Thos. Tegg, No. 111 Cheapside, [20 January 1818]

Catalog record & Digital collection

818.01.20.01+

Acquired November 2012