Hudibras vanquish’d and protected by Trulla

see description below

A copy (cropped) of Hogarth’s fifth plate: Hudibras is sprawled on the ground with Trulla, a large country-woman, astride him fending off angry villagers, including a cobbler and a butcher who are wielding clubs; to the left, Ralpho is flanked by a man with a rope (mostly cropped from this image) and another who holds a sword.

  • Title: Hudibras vanquish’d and protected by Trulla [graphic] : P. 1. Cant: 3. l. 929.
  • Publication: [London] : [Robert Sayer], [between 1768 and 1794]

Catalog Record

Folio 75 H67 768B

Acquired January 2021

Morning

description below

An old woman, the prude, is standing near a crowd of people huddled around a bonfire in Covent Garden. She is crossing Covent Garden Piazza, disapproving of the amorous scenes outside the notorious Tom King’s Coffee House. The print shows the morning and is part of a series representing the progress of the day.

  • Printmaker: Cook, Thomas, approximately 1744-1818, printmaker.
  • Title: Morning [graphic] / designed by Wm. Hogarth ; engraved by T. Cook.
  • Publication: [London] : Published August the 1st, 1797, by G.G. & J. Robinson, Pater-noster Row, London, [1 August 1797]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 797.08.01.01++ Box 310

Acquired January 2021

Noon

description below

A copy of the second print in William Hogarth’s series “Four Times of the Day”: Set outside St Giles’s-in-the-Fields. On the right an elegant crowd leaves the French Huguenot church; they are dressed in the height of French fashion. Two women kiss on the far right in the customary French way. They are contrasted with Londoners on the left. The two groups are separated by a gutter down the middle of the road; a dead cat lies in the gutter foreground. The Londoners stand outside a tavern with the sign of the Good Woman (one without a head); a woman and man in the second-storey window look surprised as the contents of her bowl are tossed out the window. In the foreground, left, under a sign with John the Baptist’s head on a platter and reading “Good Eating”, a black man embraces a servant girl and a small boy (evidently intended by his curly red hair to be identified as one of the Irish inhabitants of the area) cries because he has broken a pie-dish. A little girl squats as she eats the fallen pie off the ground. The clock in the steeple in the background reads 12:30.

  • Printmaker: Cook, Thomas, approximately 1744-1818, printmaker.
  • Title: Noon [graphic] / designed by Wm. Hogarth ; engraved by T. Cook.
  • Publication: [London] : Published October the 1st, 1797, by G.G. & J. Robinson, Pater-noster Row, London, [1 October 1797]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 797.10.01.03++ Box 310

Acquired January 2021

A country inn yard at the time of an election

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

Arrival of the flotilla of Admiral Howe

description belowUnsigned; attributed to Rowlandson.
Inscribed on verso: Names of the Ships taken by Lord Howe on 1st of June 1794, and brought into Portsmouth Harbour; Sans Pareille 84 Guns, L’America 74, Limpetue 84, Northumberland 84, Achille 76, La Vengeur 74.

 

  • Artist: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, artist.
  • Title: [Arrival of the flotilla of Admiral Howe into Portsmouth Harbour on 1 June 1794] [art original].
  • Production: [England], [1794]

Catalog Record

Drawings R79 no. 17 Box 2

Acquired August 2020

The Sunday school children of Colchester

description below

A view of the grounds of the Castle Park in Colchester (Essex) with tents erected for the celebration of the anniversary of the Sunday school. The tents, along the left side accommodate a series of booths, each equipped to feed the children in orderly queues. Against a background of trees along the perimeter of the lawns are groups of people strolling, walking dogs, or sitting with their own picnic baskets; they are apparently of the middle or better classes (judging by their clothes) looking on their objects of charity?

 

  • Title: The Sunday school children of Colchester [graphic] : at their anniversary dinner in the Castle bailey.
  • Publication: [Colchester, England] : Published October 1t, 1797, by I. Marsden, Colchester, [1 October 1797]

Catalog Record

797.10.01.01+

Acquired August 2020

Salus populi suprema lex

description belowBroadside poem, with engraving above letterpress text.
Engraved at top left of image: June mid-day. Engaved at top right of image: Tide, low water at London Bridge.

 

  • Creator: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878.
  • Title: Salus populi suprema lex. … royal address of Cadwallader ap-Tudor ap-Edwards ap-Vaughan, Water-King of Southwark …
  • Published: London, S. Knight [1828]

Catalog Record

832.00.00.51++

Acquired November 2020

The grand coronation of Her Most Graceless Majesty C-r-l–e Columbina

description below

“A burlesque coronation of the Queen. She sits enthroned on a dais, raising her right foot with tipsy joviality. In her right hand as sceptre is a rod topped by a tiny cask which a naked Bacchus bestrides. The orb in her left hand is a decanter; on her head is a tilting punch-bowl. She watches her champion Wood (left) (acting the part of Dymoke, cf. British Museum Satires No. 14193), a grotesque figure in armour on a caparisoned ass (see British Museum Satires No. 14146). He has just thrown down the glove, pulling his braying mount on to its haunches, and looks up with a fatuous stare at the Queen. His helmet is topped by an owl from which clouds of smoke ascend (cf. British Museum Satires No. 14196). John Bull (right), a ‘cit’ wearing an ill-fitting wig and top-boots, stoops to pick up the glove, supporting himself by a cudgel inscribed My God My King a[nd my] Country. Between these two foreground figures stands a ragged newsboy holding his horn, the paper in his cap inscribed Brandy burgh [cf. British Museum Satires No. 14191] Gazette; slung from his shoulders is a large sheaf of his newspaper, Brandyburg Gazette Extraordinary–Baron B…..i to be Il Baron par Excellence–Ad- W – – d to be Earl Log [see British Museum Satires No. 14189]–Lady A H [Anne Hamilton] to be Spinster for Life–L. H – – d to be Marquis Doodle. Attendants are grouped round the Queen on the dais, which is under festooned curtains. These are (left to right): Denman and Brougham, in wig and gown, applauding and gesturing; two turbaned Turks; Bergami, handsome and complacent, at the Queen’s right hand. Slightly behind are a simian face, Lady Anne Hamilton wearing the feathered Scots cap of British Museum Satires No. 14175, and another woman, Italian in appearance (probably Countess Oldi). Behind the Queen’s chair on the right are two hooded figures, the more prominent, who holds a decanter, being Viscount Hood, the other perhaps Keppel Craven. Two naval officers must be Hownam and Flinn. On the canopy of the throne behind the Queen are her arms; the quarterings are wine-glasses, bottles, a tent (see British Museum Satires No. 13818), and a bath containing a tiny figure (see British Museum Satires No. 13819). The supporters are a satyr and a goat; the motto, Bergami and My Bottle [see British Museum Satires No. 14175]. On the extreme left, supported on Gothic arches, is a gallery crowded with ladies, as in Westminster Abbey at the Coronation. On a lower level, seen through the arches of the Abbey, is a dense proletarian crowd with banners, pikes, and caps of Liberty. The characters are indicated by inscriptions divided by vertical lines, as in British Museum Satires No. 14182, and centred by a cartouche. These are (left to right): Mobility in Attendance. The Champion of Absolute Wisdom [see British Museum Satires No. 13899] on his renowned Steed. The Keepers of her Majesty’s Conscience [her Counsel]. Her Majesty’s Lord Great Chamberlain Her Majesty’s Privy Counsellor Knight Commander of the Bath Chief Performer of the Canopy Service and Courier Extraordinary [Bergami]. Hooded Doodles in Waiting [Lord Hood and his companion]. Barons of the Bedposts. Performers of the Canopy Service [the naval officers]. In the cartouche: If any Person of what degree soever, high or low, shall deny or gainsay our Puppet C . r . l . . e Columbina [see British Museum Satires No. 14120] of Brandy-burgh House, of the United Kingdoms of Soberness and Chastity, Defender of the easy Virtues &c &c the Right of being Crowned with a crown Bowl of Imperial Punch, or that she should not enjoy the same, here is her Champion, who saith he doth not care a Drug, being ready in person to lay a bet that she is, and in this wager will venture his Eighteen Pence against a Shilling wherever, and whenever his Adversary may choose.”–British Museum online catalogue.

 

  • Printmaker: Lane, Theodore, 1800-1828, printmaker.
  • Title: The grand coronation of Her Most Graceless Majesty C-r-l–e Columbina, the first queen of all the radicals &c &c &c, July 19th, 1821 [graphic].
  • Publication: London : Pubd. by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s Street, August 6th, 1821.

Catalog Record

821.08.06.01+

Acquired March 2020

The tunnel!!!, or, Another bubble burst!

The tunnel!!!. Detailed description below

A satire: The breech of the Thames Tunnel and its subsequent flooding in May 1827. The visitors to this popular site are shown fleeing in panic as disaster strikes. Water pours into the tunnel from the top left while workers watch in horror and shout warnings. Engineer Marc Brunel, whose tunnelling shield technology was used in the construction of the tunnel, stands on a ladder next to the cascade and exclaims “My hypothesis is gone to the devil”. Well-dressed ladies and gentlemen trip over themselves while racing towards the right, with one visitor remarking “If I can get home before this transpires I’ll sell my shares immediately”, a reference to the South Sea Bubble that is also referenced in the title. Above the speech bubbles of the frantic crowd is a sign on the wall of the tunnel proclaiming “The tunnel being perfectly dry and safe the public are invited to visit it every day Sunday excepted.

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: The tunnel!!!, or, Another bubble burst! [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. May 1827 by S. Knights, Sweetings Alley, Royal Exchange, [May 1827]

Catalog RecordĀ 

827.05.00.03+

Acquired March 2019

Chosen candidate

Chosen candidate. Detailed description below.

A caricature on the prevalence of bribery during elections, most probably that of 1826. The successful liberal candidate stands on a platform before a cheering crowd and people waving from the windows of adjoining building. In the ‘Committee Room’ behind him, an official pays a man holding a sign inscribed ‘No bribery or corruption’ with the word ‘and’ between bribery and corruption scored through. On the right is an armchair and behind it stand two large flags; two flowers on the chair match the flower on the lapel of the candidate.

  • Artist: Lane, Theodore, 1800-1828, artist.
  • Title: Chosen candidate [art original] / by Theodore Lane.
  • Production: [London], [ca. 1826]

Catalog RecordĀ 

Drawings L265 no. 2 Box D205

Acquired March 2019