Tag Archives: Carriages and coaches

Changing horses at Clermont

Posted on by
Reply

description below

A single-horse carriage is stopped in front of a rustic inn or roadhouse, with two caricatured Frenchmen (one a postillion wearing enormous boots) engaged in changing out the horse. An occupant of the carriage hands money out the window to a peasant woman holding an infant and accompanied by a young boy; two other shabbily dressed figures are nearby next to a tree, one of them playing a makeshift drum. In the doorway of the building stands a young woman, and to the left a man under an archway stands with arms crossed; both watch the scene unfold. In the background a postilion rides away on horseback, whip extended into the air.

  • Artist: Byron, Frederick George, 1764-1792, artist.
  • Title: [Changing horses at Clermont] [art original] / F.G. Byron.
  • Production: [France], [1790]

Catalog Record

Drawer Drawings B995 no. 1

Acquired June 2023

Gentleman escorting a young woman to a waiting carriage

Posted on by
Reply

description below

A gentleman leads a young woman and her mother (or chaperone) to the door of a carriage, held open by the coach driver who wears a top hat and a peculiar grin. In the background is a house or inn with a partially drawn figure (in ink) watching or emerging from the door. On the verso, pencil sketches of two men in top hats, and a smaller figure lightly sketched with a top hat in black ink.

 

  • Creator: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, artist.
  • Title: [Gentleman escorting a young woman to a waiting carriage] [art original] / Geo. Cruikshank.
  • Production: [England], [1830s?]

Catalog Record

Drawings C889 no. 9 Box D115

Acquired November 2022

View of Piazza della Signoria in Florence

Posted on by
Reply

description below

A small audience sitting on benches on a tribune next to the equestrian statue of Cosimo I de’ Medici in Piazza della Signoria, watching a military parade of the guards of the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorena (1765-1790), son of the Empress Maria Theresa of Habsburg and brother of Joseph II. The soldiers, forming an L-shaped cordon and led by four battalion officers, are recognizable by their tricorns and the bayonets. At the center of the square, under the grand building of Palazzo Vecchio, stands a troop of drummers. Figures in the the foreground include a group of cavalrymen bearing a banner and followed by a cart on the right; a lady and gentleman waiting for a landau carriage at center; and a figure, maybe a soldier on look-out, watching the scene in Palazzo Uguccioni’s shadow on the left.

 

  • Creator: Patch, Thomas, 1725-1782, artist.
  • Title: [View of Piazza della Signoria in Florence with the Grand Duke’s military guard] [art original].
  • Production: [Florence], [not after 1782]

Catalog Record

Drawings P294 no. 1 Box D205

Acquired September 2022

An attempt to exhibit the leading events of the Queen’s life

Posted on by
Reply

description below

“Broadside; the text in five columns: small cuts I-X on the left and right, each with an eight-line verse below it; cuts XI and XII above and below the three centre columns. Cut I. The Queen’s arrival in England, and Marriage. The Prince leads her ashore from a small boat. Cut II. Taking farewell of Charlotte [1814]. Mother and daughter weep, turning from each other; the Princess approaches a ship’s boat, Cut III. Her Return–Landing at Dover [June 1820]. She is rowed to shore by two sailors. Cut IV. Her Trial in the House of Lords. A simplified but recognizable view. Cut V. Her Acquittal. She drives in an open carriage past Carlton House. Cut VI. Procession to St. Paul’s. A similar carriage scene with St. Paul’s in the background. Cut VII. The Highlanders’ Address. Highlanders in a carriage with banners (cf. British Museum Satires No. 13934). Cut VIII. Refused Admittance into the Abbey. She gestures at the partly closed door between a sentry and the rejecting doorkeeper. Cut IX. Death-Bed of the Queen. The bed surrounded by weeping mourners. Cut X. Embarkation of Her Body at Harwich. The coffin is swung by tackle into a ship’s boat. Cut XI. The Queen’s Funeral Procession at Brunswick. The coffin, with crown and royal arms, is borne towards a church door (right) where girls scatter flowers. Cut XII. Queen Caroline’s Tomb. Britannia weeps, and her Lion registers anger, beside the tomb of Caroline The Injured Queen of England, topped by a large urn on which is her bust portrait. The text includes the funeral prayer, ‘A Dirge’ and ‘An Elegy . . .’ (28 11.): 11. 7-10: ‘A seperation hardly to be borne, Her only Daughter from her arms was torn! And next discarded–driven from her home, An unprotected Wanderer to roam!’ The verses below Cut XII end: ‘For the King shall be Judg’d with the poor of the earth, And, perhaps the poor man will be greater than he. Until that great day we leave Caroline’s wrongs, Meantime, may, “Repentance” her foes o’ertake; O grant it kind POWER, to whom alone it belongs’ AMEN. Here an end of this Hist’ry we make.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: An attempt to exhibit the leading events of the Queen’s life in cuts and verse.
  • Edition: Twelfth edition.
  • Publication: [London] : Printed and sold wholesale and retail by J. Catnatch, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials, [December 1821]

Catalog Record

File 53 C292 821A++

Acquired November 2021

William Darton, bookseller

Posted on by
Reply

description below

A view from the street of the bookseller William Darton’s shop at No. 58 Holborn in London, with the shop window filled with prints and books. Above the windows Darton advertises the scope of his wares: “Books in all languages on the arts, sciences &c.; Maps, plans, charts, prints & games; Works of merit soon as published. A woman and two children are shown looking in the windows while a second woman and child are shown entering the shop. A horse-drawn carriage enters the scene from the right. On the left, a man sits beside a lamppost with a basker and dog at his side.

  • Title: William Darton, bookseller [graphic].
  • Publication: London : William Darton, 58, Holborn Hill, 1822, where may be had maps and prints wholesale, [1822]

Catalog Record

File 66 822 W716

Acquired November 2021

Night

Posted on by
Reply

description below

A copy of the fourth print in William Hogarth’s series “Four Times of the Day”, set at the intersection of Rummer Court and Charing Cross. Le Sueur’s equestrian statue of Charles I can be seen in the background. It is the anniversary of the Restoration of Charles II (29 May, known as “Oak Apple Day”). In the foreground a drunken freemason (probably the corrupt magistrate Sir Thomas De Veil) is supported by a serving man. Behind them a man pours gin into a keg. To the left a barber is seen at work through a window; each pane of the shop window contains a lit candle. From a window above the barber shop, a chamber pot is being emptied onto the top of a wooden shelter under which a man and woman sleep. Beside them, a link boy crouches as he blows on the flame of his torch. Behind and to the right of the freemason, the Salisbury Flying Coach has crashed and overturned while trying to avoid a bonfire in the middle of the street; the passengers reach out the window of the coach, alarmed looks on their faces.Two men look on, one of whom appears to be a butcher. Shop and tavern signs include the barber’s which is decorated with oak leaves and advertises “Shaving Bleeding & Teeth Drawn wth. a Touch Ecce Signum”; the Rummer Tavern; the Earl of Cardigan; and, the Bagnio and the New Bagnio.

  • Printmaker: Cook, Thomas, approximately 1744-1818, printmaker.
  • Title: Night [graphic] / designed by Wm. Hogarth ; engraved by T. Cook.
  • Published: [London] : Published February the 1.st 1798 by G.G. & J. Robinson Pater-noster Row London, [1 February 1798]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 798.02.01.01++ Box 310

Acquired January 2021

A country inn yard at the time of an election

Posted on by
Reply

description below

“Copy of scene in the “Old Angle In”, an inn with the sign of an angel that gives the proprietor as ‘Toms. Bates’, and a stop for coaches on the road to London; in foreground a large woman enters a coach, the man to her left helps her in with a hand on her round backside, a man with a protruding belly stands waiting, behind him a boy holds out a hat for tips; to the left a refreshment seller yells out advertising her goods, two drunken guests lean out from a window above with a pipe and a horn, and two figures embrace in the doorway below, the watchdog lies asleep in his kennel on the right; a crowd of election campaigners at the far end of the inn.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: A country inn yard at the time of an election [graphic] / invented & painted by Wm. Hogarth.
  • Publication: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [between 1747 and 1800]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 747.00.00.01 Box 105

Acquired January 2021

Queen Carolines triumph on the defeat

Posted on by
Reply

see description belowQueen Caroline is seated in a carriage pulled by two white horses lead by a young page towards the right; she holds a walking-stick in her hand, sceptor-like over her shoulder and wears a fashionable hat and a small smile on her face as she looks out at the viewer. She is accompanied by two men in armor and wearing plummed helmets. The one on the far-side of the carriage holds a sign “The people and the Queens Guards”. Another sign in the background on the right reads “It is better to put your trust in the Lord than confidence in princes.” A crown is shown on the far right.

  • Title: Queen Carolines triumph on the defeat of the Bill of Pains and Penalties, Novr. 10, 1820 [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Publish’d by W.B. Walker, 4 Fox & Knot Court, Cow Lane, London, [not before 10 November 1820]

Catalog Record 

820.11.10.01 Framed

Acquired September 2019

The Princes disastar

Posted on by
Reply

The Princes disastar. Detailed description below

“The Prince of Wales falls from an overturning phaeton or curricle. He is about to fall on the prostrate body of Mrs. Fitzherbert (left), who lies on her back, her breasts exposed, in an attitude intended to be indecorous. She lies under a steep bank or rock beside a country road. The horse rears behind the Prince.”–British Museum online catalogue.

 

  • Title: The Princes disastar [sic], or, A fall in Fitz [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Published by James Aitken, Little Russell Court, Drury Lane, [July 1788]

Catalog Record 

788.07.00.08+

Acquired April 2019

Travelling tète à tetè!!

Posted on by
Reply

Caricature of Queen Caroline sleeping side by side with Bergami

Caricature of Queen Caroline sleeping side by side with Bergami as seen through the window of an elegant stage coach as they are observed by an astonished postillion. On the top of the carriage are two cases with the initials CB (Caroline of Brunswick) and on the carriage door, a coat of arms with a sleeping lion and unicorn.

  • Printmaker: Lane, Theodore, 1800-1828, printmaker
  • Title: Travelling tète à tetè!! [graphic].
  • Publication: London : Pubd. by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s St., June 25, 1821.

Catalog Record 

821.06.25.02

Acquired March 2019