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

A scene in the Crown & Anchor Tavern

“Fox and Sheridan (left) sit together at the head of a rectangular table on which is a punch-bowl, &c, looking with dismay at whigs (right), who advance to hurl their wigs at a large pile of wigs on the left (inscribed ‘The Heads having Scratched out of the Club’), or retire, having already done so. Fox and Sheridan wear enormous wigs, the former says, “Brother: Brother: we are all in the wrong” (showing that they are Peachum and Lockit [Like Newcastle and Fox in 1756 (British Museum Satires no. 3371), Burke and Sheridan in 1790 (British Museum Satires no. 7627), Burke and Fox in 1791 (British Museum Satires no. 7856).] in Gay’s ‘Beggar’s Opera’, II. ii). Before Fox is a list with names scored through. Sheridan grasps a bottle of ‘Sherry’. A couple advance together, in the act of hurling their large wigs at the pile; one says, “I will Scratch out my Name in hopes of getting in for the City” (probably Nathaniel Newnham, returned for the City 1784, but defeated in 1790, cf. British Museum Satires no. 7162). The other is perhaps Windham. The only one of the retiring wigless Whigs who is characterized is Burke. All say: “We have erased our Names for ever from the Club, when the Artful & Ambitious designs of a Faction are carried on under a Mask of Prudential Reform & when the leading Members are Notoriously known to Carry on a secret Correspondence with the Avowed Enemies of the Constitution they Affect to Support & Defend it is high time for all prudent & real friends to that Constitution to leave them to their Just Punishment, the Contemp of all true Friends to their King and Constitution.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Title: A scene in the Crown & Anchor Tavern, or, A crack in the Wig Club [graphic].
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. March 17, 1793, by S.W. Fores, No. 3 Piccadilly … , [17 March 1793]

Catalog Record 

793.03.17.01

Acquired June 2018

Economy

On a hilly rural scene a man in a Northumbrian[?] checkered-plaid over shirt and cap, with bare feet and legs, carries a stave on which are tied his shoes and trousers. The man is followed by a similarly barefooted and barelegged boy carrying waterbottles[?]. They seem to be walking past an inn called the Crown outside which is parked a covered wagon.

• Printmaker: Davison, William, 1780-1858, printmaker.
  
• Title: Economy [graphic].
  
• Publication: [Alnwick : Printed and published by W. Davison, Alnwick, between 1812 and 1817]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

812.00.00.95

Acquired October 2015

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

 

Invoices from the Lemon-Tree Tavern and Hotel

Three printed bills with manuscript completions, issued by the Aberdeen inn, the Lemon Tree and later the Lemon Tree Tavern and Hotel, and dated 1802, 1806, and 1811. The billhead includes a woodcut of a lemon tree and identifies the proprietor as George Ronald. The three bills display typographic differences in the setting of the headings as well as variation in the extensive list of drinks, foodstuffs, and services on offer, and the printer’s devices used to create the columns for prices in pounds, shillings, and pence vary. A note on the 1802 bill records the details of a game of whist including the names of the participants. The 1806 invoice also includes a note about the guests and their travel details.

• Title: Invoices from the Lemon-Tree Tavern and Hotel : Aberdeen, to various, 1802 June 11, 1806 April 2, and 1811 April 19.

Catalog Record

LWL Mss File 132

Acquired July 2015

Ready mony the prevailing candidate

 Print shows on the left, a statue of Justice in a niche beneath which a candidate, doffing his hat, offers a purse of money to a voter who replies, “Twill scarce pay, make it twenty more”, beside them a gentleman points to the statue saying “Regard Justice” to another carrying a bundle on his shoulder who replies, “We fell out, I lost money by her”. In the centre, in front of a large crowd are two candidates, both waving their hats, slip coins into two of the many pockets of a voter’s coat; one candidate says, “Sell not your Country” and the voter replies, “No Bribery but Pocketts are free”. Further to the right another candidate, saying “Accept this small acknowledgment”, offers a purse to a gentleman who grovels on the ground for coins that have been thrown down by the prevailing candidate, from his position on a chair supported by poles on the shoulders of four men. On the right, a statue of Folly in a niche empties bags of coins; before the statue is an altar on which a fire burns, a candidate kneels at its base imploring, “Help me Folly or my Cause is lost”; to the left of the altar, is a butcher crying “See here, see here” and to the right, a classical philosopher, saying “Let not thy right hand know what thy left does”, puts his hand behind him to received a bribe from a young man. Beyond is a tavern outside the landlord, wearing horns, calls out “He kist my Wife he has my Vote”; outside the tavern hangs the sign of a bottle with a large globe attached.

• Title: Ready mony the prevailing candidate, or The humours of an election [graphic].
• Published: London : Sold at the Print Shop in Grays Inn, [1727]

Catalog Record  & Digital Collection

727.00.00.02

Acquired July 2013

The Piccadilly nuisance!

• Printmaker: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, printmaker.
• Title: The Piccadilly nuisance! [graphic] : dedicated to the worthy, acting magistrates of the district / G. Cruikshank sculpt.
• Published: [London] : Pubd. by Thos. McLean, 26 Haymarket, Augt. 1st, 1835.

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

835.08.01.50+

Acquired April 2013

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

[Charity in the cellar]

“A drunken party; four men drinking heavily in a tavern, one with a cloth over his head, the others gathered round him, a fifth laid out asleep on a table at left; on a barrel at right a statue group of Charity, echoing the poses of the main figures; numerous empty bottles in the foreground; after the painting by Hogarth”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Artist: Cheesman, Thomas, 1760-, printmaker.
• Title: [Charity in the cellar] [graphic].
• Published: London : Publish’d Oct. 1, 1793, by E. Walker, No. 7 Cornhill, [1 October 1793]

Catalog record & Digital collection

793.10.01.03++

Acquired November 2012

Account book, 1756 October 9-1758 March 18, [1758] September 14-16.

An account book in a variety of hands that records the purchase price of food that was later sold to customers at the Coach and Horses Inn on Conduit Street, London, between 1756 and 1758. A popular stop for grooms and coachmen, it was located near the Limmer’s Hotel, a haunt for the upper echelons of the mid-Georgian sporting world.  The accounts include the prices paid for meat, game, fish, and vegetables as well as details about the kind of fare offered at this time in central London.  Other expenses are recorded include payments to maids, valets, housekeeping.  Payments are signed and dated.  “To Thomas Wilson at Mrs. Graham’s at the Coach and Horses in Conduit Street, London” on back pastedown.  Some personal notes unrelated to accounts hint at the lives of the staff: “Miss Mary Ann Lane is [the] best young lady in ale [the] world.”

• Author: Coach and Horses Inn (London, England).
• Title: Account book, 1756 October 9-1758 March 18, [1758] September 14-16.

Catalog record

LWL Mss Vol. 206

Acquired October 2012