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

A crop shop

The interior of barber shop: On the left a man stands before a mirror, face contorted as he wipes his jaw, unaware of the boy behind him pointing and laughing at him as he holds the man’s pigtail in his hand. Another customer is shown in the center seated on a chair, the barber behind him about to cut off his pigtail as well. The third man sits in a chair on the right, reading a newspaper; his lower head is also shorn of its pigtail. The room show other customers as well as stands for wigs. Above the door on the right hangs a sign “R. Crop’em, hair dresser”, a second sign beneath reads “Shave for a penny. Crop for two penny.” Through the window on the left in the back, is a display of ladies’ hats.

• Printmaker: Newton, Richard, 1777-1798, printmaker.
  
• Title: A crop shop [graphic] / R.N.
  
• Publication: London : Pubd. Octr. 8, 1791, by W. Holland, No. 50 Oxford St., [8 October 1791]

Catalog Record 

791.10.08.02+

Acquired May 2017

Park-character

“Standing whole length profile portrait of a man in an oval enclosed in a rectangle. He walks from left to right, his head thrown back, his stomach projecting. He wears spectacles, a looped hat, a large tie-wig, and holds a tasselled cane.”–British Museum online catalogue.

• Title:Park-character [graphic].
  
• Publication:[London] : Pub. Novr. 24, 1776, by MDarly, 39 Strand, [1 May 1777]

Catalog Record 

777.11.24.01

Acquired April 2018

The historians

A lady (Mrs. Catherine Macaulay) with an aquiline profile sits at a table opposite a clergy man (Dr. Wilson) as she writes with a quill pen. The walls are lined with full bookshelves separated in the middle by a fireplace with a mantelpiece on which sits a bust of “Alfred rex”. Both figures wear the same enormous hair as in British Museum no. 5441.

• Printmaker: Darly, Mattina, printmaker.
  
• Title: The historians [graphic] / Mattina Darly sculp.
  
• Publication: [London] : Pub. May 1, 1777, by MDarly, 39 Strand, [1 May 1777]

Catalog Record 

777.05.01.08

Acquired April 2018

A lecture on wigs illustrated by a man who does not wear one

6 plates of dignitaries in official wigs, law wig, bar wig, reverend wig, etc., the top 5 with cutouts revealing face on the 6th plate which is depicted with natural uncut and unattractive locks.

• Title: A lecture on wigs illustrated by a man who does not wear one : addressed to all the wig wearers and wig makers in the United Kingdom.
• Published: London : Printed and published for the author, by Gold and Walton, 24, Wardour Street, Soho, 1818.

Catalog Record

657 818 L43

Acquired November 2003

[A barber’s shop]

A scene in a barber’s shop in which the center figure is a man seated, full-face, swathed in a sheet, while a boy (left) applies tongs to his hair, which a man (right) is combing. In the foreground (left) a customer is seated, clasping his bald head with a concerned expression as he reads a newspaper “Morning post” dated Nov. 3, 1807.

• Artist: Bunbury, Henry William, 1750-1811.
• Title: [A barber’s shop]
• Created: [London, 1807]

Catalog record & Digital collection

Drawer Drawings B87 no. 29

Acquired October 2012