To all to whom these presents shall come….

A certificate recording the appointment 31 May 1781 of “Henry Hastings gentleman to be collector for … the district of Colchester and Maldon … for administering the oaths … taken by paper-makers … for proving that paper brought to be stamped as stock in hand, was really, and bona fide made in Great Britain, before the commencement of … An act for repealing the present duties upon paper, pasteboards, millboards and scaleboards, made in Great Britain, and for granting other duties in lieu thereof … and also the oath taken by such makers of paper, for ascertaining the value of such paper …”. The cost of war with America caused the British government to increase taxes. In 1781 the existing excise duty on paper was abolished and replaced with a more complicated scheme which imposed seventy-eight different rates applied on the various types of paper. Transitional arrangements allowed that paper produced before the new system came into force could be taxed at the old rate, the holder of this certificate being required to take oaths from papermakers concerning such previously-manusfactured paper stock.

• Title: To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know ye, that we whose names are hereunto set, and seals affixed, being the major part of the Chief Commissioners and Governors for the management of the receipt of excise, and other duties put under our management and receipt, in pursuance of the powers and authorities to us given, have constitued, deputed and appointed …
  
• Publication: [London] : [publisher not identified], [1781]

Catalog Record 

File 66 780 T627+

Acquired July 2017

The golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up

“A sequel to British Museum Satires no. 6438. George III, seated on a balloon, points downwards with his sceptre to an image of Pitt (right) as a naked child, on a column which is inscribed ‘Family Presumption’. The king looks down at North, Fox, and Burke, saying, “I command you O Shadrach Mesech & Abednego!” The three stand (left) in attitudes expressing intense self-righteousness; they say: “Know O King we will not worship ye Golden Image”; on each head rests a tongue of flame. They stand outside a dilapidated building on the extreme left inscribed ‘St Stephens’, shored up by a beam, whose base is at their feet, inscribed ‘Resolutions Unrescinded’. From its coping-stone flies an ensign flag inscribed ‘Firm S.P.Q.B.’ The king’s balloon is inscribed ‘Prerogative’; its lower axis emits a blast inscribed ‘Gracious Answer’. Behind the balloon and Pitt are clouds inscribed ‘Breath of Popularity’. Pitt stands sucking his finger (cf. British Museum Satires no. 6417); on his head is a sugar-loaf surmounted by a flag inscribed ‘Feby 28′, an emblem of the Grocers’ Company which had entertained him on that day, see British Museum Satires no. 6442. Kneeling figures do obeisance before the image of Pitt, those in the foreground representing the least reputable trades: a lamplighter (left), with his ladder and oil-can, kneels in profile to the right; a butcher prostrates himself; a chimney-sweep kneels with clasped hands; a ragged scavenger, his shovel and basket beside him, kneels in profile to the left, the basket stands on a paper inscribed ‘[Worshipfu]ll Company of Scavenger[s]’. In the foreground lie papers inscribed ‘Garret Address’ (an allusion to the mock elections of Garratt), ‘Address’, and ‘The worshipfull Company of Chimney Sweepers’. A crowd of kneeling figures (left) is worshipping the idol; they hold standards, three of which are inscribed ‘Bristol’, ‘Westminster’, and ‘London’, representing the addresses to the king which had been compared by Fox to those made to Charles II, see British Museum Satires no. 6438, &c.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Printmaker: Collings, Samuel, printmaker.
  
• Title: The golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up [graphic] / Annibal Scratch del. et sculp.
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. by W. Wells, No. 132 Fleet Street, March 11th, 1784.

Catalog Record

784.03.11.05+

Acquired May 2017

The fall of the Wolsey of the Woolsack / Vices overlook’d in the new proclamation

“Thurlow, seated on the Woolsack, and George III who stands on the extreme left, tug at the bag of the Great Seal, while Pitt and Grenville (right) attempt to dislodge the Chancellor. The King, in profile to the right, tugs with both hands, saying, “What! What! What! – pull against me Neddy? pull against me? – no! no! no! – ‘twont do!” –excerpt from British Museum online catalogue

With an impression on the verso of a reprint of James Gillray’s, with number in upper right ’80’: Vices overlook’d in the new proclamation. [London] : Pubd. May 24th 1792 by H. Humphrey, N. 18, Old Bond Street, [24 May 1792].

• Printmaker: Gillray, James, 1756-1815, printmaker.
  
• Title: The fall of the Wolsey of the Woolsack [graphic].
  
• Edition: [State with plate no.].
  
• Publication: [London] : Pubd. May 24th, 1792, by H. Humphrey, No. 18 Old Bond Street [i.e. H.G. Bohn], [1849?]

Catalog Record

792.05.24.02.01+

Acquired February 2017

Household accounts for Prince Frederick, Duke of York

Leaves from an account book, in various hands, listing salary payments to household and stable staff and payments for boardwages, allowances, and extraordinaries as well as payments from the Exchequer and other allowances, for the periods ending 5 July 1790, 10 October 1794. 5 July 1798, and 11 November 1798. Also contains 5 pages of accounts for servants of Prince William, Edward, Ernest, Augustus and Adolphius for the period 5 July 1798 and signed 11 November 1798 by King George III.

• Title: Household accounts for Prince Frederick, Duke of York, 1790 July 5-29 September 1798.

Catalog Record

Folio LWL Mss Vol. 221

Acquired March 2016

The 3 kings

The kings of England, France, and Spain stand or sit by a table on which sit a punch-bowl, wine bottles, and glasses. Behind the table is a four-leaved screen. A waiter with a bill in his hand and a napkin under his arm says to George II “Who pays the reckoning.” George responds “O! The French king pays for me.” The king of France in a coat decorated with fleur-de-lys responds “The king of Spain pays for all.” The king of Spain seated at the table and dressed in a clock and feathered hat says “D-n the family compact.”

• Title: The 3 kings : who pays the reckoning, or, Don Diego in the dumps.
• Published: [London] : Published as the Act directs, Feby. 26, 1780 by WRichardson, No. 68 High Holborn, [26 Feb. 1780]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

Acquired October 2011.