Going to court he’s arrested at St. James’s Gate

description below

“Piracy of plate IV of Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress with considerable differences: a scene in St James’s Street with the Rake (here named Ramble) emerging from a sedan-chair to be arrested for debt; figures in the foreground include a Welshman, probably the creditor, honouring St David’s day (March 1st) with a leek in his hat, “Nanny” offering a handful of money to reprieve her former lover, and a lamp-lighter carelessly spilling oil on the Rake’s coat; in the distance to left, a group of street-boys point to “Taffy”, a mannikin, perched on a lamp-post, and beyond the gate of St James’s Palace.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Bowles, Thomas, -1767, printmaker.
  • Title: Going to court he’s arrested at St. James’s Gate [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : [John Bowles], [1735]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 735.00.00.20+ Box 200

Acquired January 2021

Norfolk Association for the preservation of the game

Norfolk Association for the preservation of the game

  • Author: Norfolk Association for the Preservation of the Game (Norfolk, England)
  • Title: Norfolk Association for the preservation of the game. May 5th, 1788.
  • Publication: [Norwich?] : [publisher not identified], [1788]

Catalog Record 

File 644 788 N763

Acquired April 2019

The doctors in labour

Print with twelve panels relating to the affair of Mary Toft

Print with twelve panels relating to the affair of Mary Toft, “the rabbit breeder”: from top left, she is held aloft by two men and a Harlequin or Merry Andrew, she has a rabbit in either hand; she pursues a rabbit while working in a field; she dreams of being impregnated by rabbit, Cupid is shown on a cloud beside her bed holding a rabbit in either hand; she is seated in a chair attended by two women while the two men and Harlequin discuss the monstrous birth; Harlequin demonstrates that he can express milk from her breast; Harlequin feels “the rabbets leapin in her belly” while two men look on; she sits on the edge of a bed and Harlequin kneels to seize a rabbit that emerges from her skirts while a doctor raises his hands in surprise, wishing to anatomize the animal; Harlequin stands behind a table holding a balance in which he weighs dung removed from the rabbit explaining to two men that this will allow him to judge whether the animal had “breath’d in air”; doctors and midwives discuss the phenomenon around a table and Harlequin enters claiming that the birth must be “praeternatural”; a crowd of gentlemen are welcomed to the bagnio in Leicester Square where Toft is housed; two men spy from the door to Toft’s room as another hands her a dead rabbit; Toft, weeping, is led away to Bridewell by two constables while Harlequin “sits upon Repenting stool, Cursing his fate in being made a Fool. See British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: The doctors in labour, or, A new whim wham from Guildford [graphic] : being a representation of [the] frauds by which [the] Godliman woman, carried on her pretended rabbit breeding; also of [the] simplicity of our doctors, by which they assisted to carry on that imposture discover’d their own skill, & contributed to [the] Mirth, of His Majesties liege subjects.
  • Published: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [1726]

Catalog Record 

726.00.00.26+

Acquired September 2018

A proposal for regulating the nightly watch

Click for a larger image

Click for larger image

  • Title: A proposal for regulating the nightly watch within the city and liberty of Westminster, and to make those that are now of little service, and a great burthen upon the housholders, the most useful men and the best night-guard in the kingdom ; and to prevent the frequent robberies and riots committed in the streets.
  • Published: [London?] : [s.n.], [1755?]

Catalog Record

File 652 755 P965

Acquired April 2013