A hint to duellists

description below

“A court scene. The judge, Bayley (right), addresses the apprehensive prisoner at the bar, Wellington (left): ‘”If a party, wilfully & intentionally does an act likely in its results to produce death, & death actually ensues, the act so done by him is done with what the Law calls “malice afore thought” & the party is guilty of murder!”‘ The jury, in a raised box, Counsel seated in the well of the court, and a shorthand-writer standing on the extreme left, stare at judge or prisoner. The heads of spectators fill the space under the jury-box.”–British Museum online catalogue.

 

  • Printmaker: Doyle, John, 1797-1868, printmaker.
  • Title: A hint to duellists [graphic] / HB [monogram].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. by Thomas McLean, 26 Haymarket, April 13th, 1830.

Catalog Record

830.04.13.01+

Acquired June 2020

“Returning Justice lifts aloft her scale.”

description below

“An emblematical and composite scene, with a realistic background intended for Lake Como, with the Villa d’Este (right), decorated with dancing figures as in British Museum satires no. 14171. In the foreground the Queen, between Bergami and Wood, falls from the tilting summit of a breaking pillar, supported on insecure props. She falls to the left, with Bergami, whose arm is round her waist. Wood, who holds her left hand, falls to the right, weighed down by a block inscribed ‘Log’ chained to his ankle. A small figure of Justice holding scales descends through the air towards them. The pillar resolves itself into separate blocks on each of which is a letter: ‘M O B / I L I T Y’. A board resting on a ram’s head forms the tiny platform from which the trio are falling. The pillar rests on a slab inscribed ‘Adultery’. This is supported on the bewigged head of Brougham which is raised on three props: a massive broom, and two beams poised on a rectanglar cage in which sits a second and much smaller lawyer (Denman). The beams are respectively ‘Sham Addresses’ and ‘Hired Processions’ [see British Museum satires no. 14182]. These props are flanked by two ladders resting against the ‘Adultery’ slab, by which Bergami (see British Museum satires no. 14183) and Wood (see British Museum satires no. 13734) have reached the Queen. One (left) is inscribed ‘Brass’; from it dangle emblems of Bergami: a postilion’s boot, a whip, and a Maltese cross, see British Museum satires no. 13810. The other (right) is ‘Wood’; from it dangle a bottle, a pestle and mortar, and a porter’s knot. In the foreground (right) are thistles, emblem of ‘Thistle-Wood’, see British Museum satires no. 14146. On Lake Como sails (left) a one-masted vessel with a tent on its deck, the polacca, see British Museum satires no. 13818. Beyond its shores and on the extreme left are tiny buildings representing Jerusalem. A lake-side signpost, ‘To Jerusalem’, points in the same direction, and near it the Princess and Bergami ride side by side on asses (see British Museum satires no. 13918, &c.). On the right is a travelling-carriage, with two horses and a postilion; in it sit the same couple. On the door are the letters ‘C·B’. In the lake behind it the pair are seen bathing, two nude figures standing waist-deep, holding hands. Near them is an empty rowing-boat inscribed ‘Como’..”–British Museum online catalogue.

 

  • Printmaker: Lane, Theodore, 1800-1828, printmaker.
  • Title: “Returning Justice lifts aloft her scale.” Pope [graphic].
  • Publication: London : Pubd. by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s St., June 1st, 1821.

Catalog Record

821.06.01.07

Acquired March 2020

The itinerant chancellor

description belowA copy of the caricature of the British Statesman and High Lord Chancellor Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868), that appeared in the center of an print that was published on 1 October 1834 in Every body’s album & caricature magazine, no. 19. He is depicted as a very thin traveller wearing a Scottish tam over his wig and using a broom as a walking stick; his shoe is worn through. He carries a wooden post labelled “Scratching post”, a box stamped “Containing the freedoms of all the Scotch towns” and a bag with the words “Broken victuals the leavings of the Edinburgh blow out”. Around his waist is another bag, “Oat meal”. Above the image framed in lines in gold ink: “I flatter myself I’ve made a tolerable good job by my “Starring it” with Old Grey in the North! Sold all my numbers of the Penny Magazine, and well puff’d it through every town I went. Made little less than one hundred speeches about, I forget now, Received some score of Burgesses, Freedoms, and Invitations to as many dinners, where I blew my own trumpet & obtained plenty of orders from our Usefull Knowledge Society! Now, woe to the unstamn’d when I get home! I must have a good scrub at my skin presently; I reckon I have got a taste of the fiddle through my itch for travelling!

  • Creator: M., M. S., artist.
  • Title: The itinerant chancellor [art original] / M.S.M. pinxt. March 39.
  • Production: [England], [March 1839]

Catalog Record

Drawings M999 no. 1 Box D205

Acquired December 2019

A harlot’s progress. Plate III

description belowA copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 3 of A harlot’s progress: In a shabby room in Drury Lane; Moll Hackabout is shown having risen late (the watch shows 11:45), attended by a serving-woman who has lost part of her nose to syphilis; in the background, the magistrate, John Gonson, enters quietly with officers to arrest her; pinned to the window frame are two portrait prints of the hero and heroines of “The Beggar’s Opera”, Captain Mackheath and Polly Peacham, (Polly replaces Dr. Sacheverell in Hogarth’s print), the wig-box of James Dalton, highwayman, sits above the bed, and one of several beer tankards on the floor carries the name of a Drury Lane tavern. A kitten plays at Moll’s feet. A copy of Bishop Gibson’s “Pastoral Letter to …” serves as a butter dish. Above the window on the left is a print after a Titian painting depicting the angel staying the hand of Abraham as he is about to slay Isaac. Medicine bottles on the window sill suggest that Molly is already ill with the disease that will later kill her.

  • Title: A harlot’s progress. Plate III [graphic] : The compleat trull at her lodgings in Drury Lane = Elle est reduite à la misère dans son logement de Drury Lane / invented & painted by Wm. Hogarth.
  • Publication: [London] : [publisher not identified], [not before 25 March 1768]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 768.03.25.11+ Box 210

Acquired December 2019

Melancholy loss of the medal

A magistrate sits behind his table listening intently to the angry harangue of a naval officer

“A magistrate sits behind his table listening intently to the angry harangue of a naval officer (right) who faces the accused (left), demure-looking, plainly-dressed woman, wearing a checked apron tucked round her waist, but evidently a prostitute. She is supported by two keen-looking lawyers. The officer, who is paunchy and wears very wide white trousers, stands with legs apart, right arm extended with pointing forefinger. He shouts: No. No. I’ve found my Breeches, but consider your Worship how I shall be Quized–The L–d H–h-A–l knows all about it. I never was before the Public but once, shant forget that in a hurry–Yes–yes I found the breeches, but where’s my Silver Gilt Trafalgar Medal eh? I’ll have it if it costs me a Thousand Pounds. I could’ent live without it. Ay Ay she’s the Thief but I will not hang her unless your worship wishes it–If I had her aboard my Ship D–n me I’de give her a round dozen–I would. Behind him stand a footboy in livery and two rough-looking men. The woman extends both arms and says pathetically I never robbed you Sir. The lawyer says: There’s no proof you cant Harm–her.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  • Title: Melancholy loss of the medal [graphic].
  • Publication: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [1828?]

Catalog Record 

828.00.00.01+ Impression 2

Acquired October 2018

Majority one against the boroughmongers

lwlpr33540 (1024x751)

A satire on the electoral Reform Bill of 1831, which was passed soon after this print was issued. Grant shows the figure of blind Justice leaning out from a mass of billowing clouds and holding her scales labelled “Reform 1813”. The load on the left side labeled “People’, though containing fewer documents — Magna Carta, Economy & Retrenchment, Peace of Plenty, Extension of the Electi[c] Franchise, Cheap Government — is heavier than the other plate “Oligarchy” which is weighted down by: Bribes, Corruption, Six Acts, Corn Law, Church, Rotten Boroughs, Corporation Charters, Law & Iniquity, Taxes, Imposts, Holy Alliance, [F?]onal Debt. A group of four men in the left foreground include a judge; the one man says “Behold! a mere feather turns the ballance in our favour and saves us from revolution & disgrace.” Just beyond them in the middle distance the King stands firmly and says “The triumph of this great & vital cause will fix my crown more firm upon my head.” On the right a group of over six men including a clergyman who wipes his brow and cries “The draft is in their favor. Our cause is lost. Oh dictatorium, dictatorium, dic-“. Another gentleman behind him cries “They may vainly recken on a paltry unit, we have yet power to rent it peicemeal [sic].” In the distance a crowd cheers, and some hold signs for “Reform” and “Support the King & his ministers”, etc.

  • PrintmakerGrant, C. J. (Charles Jameson), active 1830-1852.
  • TitleMajority one against the boroughmongers [graphic] / C.J. Grant.
  • Publication[London] : Pub. by John Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate Hill, March 26th, 1831.

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

831.03.26.01+

Acquired January 2016

 

The sailor and the judge

Click for larger image

A judge sits in a chair (left) looking at sailor who stands, hat in hand, before him. He says, “Are you certain, in respect to your being sober at the time the circumstance happened.” The sailor with caricatured features and warts on his face, replies: “Sober. come I like that, may I never again weigh anchor if I would not call him a lubber be he who he would, that would say I was drunk, please your grave and reverend worship. I had only shipp’d in eight grogs and a gill not enough to make a lawyer merry, in short your honor, I’ll be d-nd if I was not as sober as a judge.”

  • Printmaker: Roberts, Piercy, active 1791-1805, printmaker.
  • Title: The sailor and the judge [graphic] / etch’d by Roberts.
  • Published: [London : Pubd. by Roberts, Middle Row, Holborn, between 1800 and 1807?]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

800.00.00.185+

Acquired November 2013