“A Chinese man undergoing punishment, with his head and right hand locked into a sort of stocks formed of planks of wood onto which are nailed placards, with a guard and onlookers.”–British Museum online catalogue.
796.04.12.03+
Acquired June 2022
“Britannia, tall and powerful, holds Napoleon across her knee, and raises a birch rod to thrash his bleeding posterior. She wears Roman draperies, with corslet and plumed helmet. The rod is tied with a ribbon inscribed: ‘United Kingdoms’. She says: “There take that and that and that, and be carefull not to provoke my Anger more.” He exclaims: “oh forgive me this time and I never will do so again, oh dear! oh dear! you’ll entirely spoil the Honors of the Sitting.” Beside Britannia (left) are her spear and sword; beside Napoleon (right) his huge cocked hat and sabre. The scene is by the sea (left), with a fleet of retreating vessels flying the tricolour flag. On the right is a cliff on which a small British lion lies on a scroll inscribed: ‘Qui uti scit ei bona’ [good things to him who knows how to use them].”–British Museum online catalogue.
803.06.13.01+
Acquired January 2021
Ferdinand VII, seated on a throne on a low platform inscribed “TIRANIA”, is flanked by two advisers, the Devil on the left and a friar on the right. At the friar’s feet, in the foreground, a demon burns newspapers with a firebrand. Tortures of the Inquisition are seen in the background.
818.11.00.01+
Acquired March 2020
Emaciated and shaven-headed paupers treated as slaves by cruel overseers: adults beating hemp and children picking rope in the foreground, others in the background manacled to the wall or hanging from the ceiling, tied up by their feet and hands; to right, a manager with a scourge seizing an elderly man, and a man pulling a cart, which he says is full of dead infants to be sold to surgeons; to left, a manager turning away the starving poor who beg to be let in.”–British Museum online catalogue.
Catalog Record & Digital Collection
Folio 75 G750 833 Copy 2 (Oversize)
Acquired December 2016
A punishment meted out to runaway slaves in Dutch Surinam as recorded by Stedman.
Catalog Record & Digital Collection
808.09.09.01
Acquired July 2016
“A plainly dressed man with lank hair falling on his shoulders, bends over a dog, placing his left hand on the head of the trustful animal. With a large brush he applies a smoking liquid to its side saying, “Come here poor Dog! Thee shalt not say I called thee names, or beat thee, for that would be cruel!! but I will anoint thee with Oil, and moisten thy sides with my pure Linnement.” The scene is in a yard with a high paling, outside an open door leading to the dispensing-room of the Quaker, evidently an apothecary. Just within the room is a large smoking jar of ‘Oil of Vitriol’; on the door-step is a dish of smoking vitriol. Above are the neatly ranged jars, bottles, and drawers of an apothecary, with a pestle and mortar. A woman in an upper window of an adjacent house looks down into the yard; she shouts: “Ah Obadiah, that decietfull whining Cant, to allure the poor Animal, in order to inflict the most Diabolical unheard of Cruelty on him, shall not go unpunished”.”–British Museum online catalogue.
Catalog Record & Digital Collection
806.09.00.02+
Acquired January 2016