Christopher Columbus demonstrating how to make an egg stand on its end. The five observers look at the cracked egg, upright on the table, in amusement at the evidence of an inventive mind at work. Two other eggs intertwined with two eels lie on a plate in the center of the table. A dog peeps over the edge of the table in the foreground; the cutlery is pushed off to one side.
- Title: Columbus breaking the egg [graphic].
- Publication: [Alnwick] : Printed and published by W. Davison, Alnwick, [between 1812 and 1817]
812.00.00.112
Acquired September 2019
A scene in a sitting room, a man in a fit of anger kicks over a chair and table set with tea; a pitcher, cups and saucers, tongs and other tableware are in flight or shattered on the floor. The man holds his wig in his left hand as a woman looks on with fear. Two cats fight in front of a fireplace above which hangs a seascape with rough waters and lightening. On the back wall another painting shows a man standing over a woman.
In a churchyard four young men, one of whom is a boot-black, play a game of hustle-cap on a tomb; a beadle raises his cane to strike them; in the foreground skulls and bones and an open grave; beyond, the congregation enters the church.
A gentleman is shown half-length in profile to the right, pressing a walking stick to his chin and holding his hat under his arm; he stands in a disconsolate manner at table on the right on which are set tankard lettered “small beer” and paper “W. Davison druggist Alnwick sells”.
A tailor and cobbler, both are partially bald, are seated with their backs to roaring fire in the grate of a fireplace. The cobbler is sitting at a table with a glass and tankard in front of him; he is smoking a pipe and blowing the smoke into the tailor’s face. The tailor sits slumped forward in a state of evident inebriation and his own pipe lies broken on the floor. On the wall behind them is a picture of a man seated under a tree sketching(?) the rural scene in front of him, a church with a steeple in the distance.
Print shows a man and a boy chasing a pig in the yard of a country alehouse. In the background, another man pauses to remove his hat and wipe his brow, while a fourth has evidently tripped and lies sprawling on the ground. A dog barks at the commotion.
“Portrait of Mary ‘Perdita’ Robinson, half-length in an oval, directed to left but looking forward, with high dressed hair with a cap on top, and both hands in a muff.”–British Museum online catalogue.
A crier, his mouth wide open and with an angry expression, shakes his bell in the faces of three gaping and alarmed yokels (right). He wears a long old-fashioned coat, broad cocked hat and wig, and holds a cane. A young man (farmer?) with a pitchfork (left) loiters complacently. A path leads to a farmhouse (left).”–British Museum online catalogue.
Nine small scenes, arranged in three rows, showing people and animals engaged in various activities.