Tag Archives: Aquatints

The ballad singers

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A poor family in rags sing on a city streets to earn money. The man, a veteran with a peg leg, plays the violin; his uniform is patched up. The boy wears no shoes and a coat too big for him; he holds out a hat to collect the money. The woman wears a ragged dress and a patched cloak covering a baby on her back; she carries a basket with loaded with the broadsides for sale.

  • Printmaker: Sears, Robert, active 1800- printmaker.
  • Title: The ballad singers [graphic] / Mercer del. ; Sears sculp.
  • Publication: [London] : Published by T. Smyth & sold by A. Parsey, Burlington Arcade, [1828?]

Catalog Record

828.00.00.117

Acquired September 2023

Destruction of the furious elephant at Exeter Change

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“The death of Chunee, a large Asian elephant, kept at the Exeter Change menagerie; to the left; a group of soldiers and others, all carrying guns; some observing and others firing on Chunee to the right; who, roaring, breaks the bars of his wooden cage; blood pouring from many wounds and soaking the floor; the keeper, in shirtsleeves, stabbing the elephant with a bayonet; smoke obscuring the scene; behind; small iron-barred cages containg an agitated lion and tiger respectively; above hutches containing monkeys, one grasping the bars.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, printmaker.
  • Title: Destruction of the furious elephant at Exeter Change [graphic] / G. Cruikshank fect.
  • Publication: London : Pubd. March 6th, 1826, by J. Harrison, 56 Long Acre, [6 March 1826]

Catalog Record

826.03.06.01+

Acquired September 2023

Elements of Bacchus

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A volume with caricatures illustrating toasts and satirical anecdotes.

  • Artist: Woodward, G. M. (George Moutard), approximately 1760-1809, author, artist.
  • Title: Elements of Bacchus, or, Toasts and sentiments given by distinguished characters. : Illustrated with forty portraits in aqua tinta, of the most celebrated bon vivants in Great Britain. With a variety of anecdotes and remarkable traits, prefixed to each portrait / written and designed by George Murgatroyd Woodward.
  • Publication: London : Published by W. Holland, No. 50, Oxford-Street, 1792.

Catalog Record

75 W87 792 Copy 2

Acquired February 2024

Paul preaching to the Britons

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A fire-and-brimstone preacher haranguing an unhappy-looking audience. An assistant holds up a parasol to shelter him.

  • Title: Paul preaching to the Britons [graphic].
  • Publication: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [approximately 1808?]

Catalog Record

808.00.00.39+

Acquired September 2023

A Margate packet

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“The crowded cabin tilts to the right, to the dismay of a family party dining at a table in the foreground. There is a second table in the background with a meal in progress. The cabin is bordered on left and right by two tiers of berths, apparently for two persons, set in panelling, and with curtains festooned along the upper edge. These are filled by suffering travellers. A bench runs along the front of the berths; other passengers sit on camp-stools. Phases of misery, discomfort, resignation, and (by exception) complacency are realistically illustrated. A sailor pushes a mop-stick through an open hatch in the roof.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: A Margate packet [graphic] : the effects of a squall, or a sudden shift of ballast / drawn by a Naval Officer.
  • Published: [London] : Published by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s Str., London, Novr 6th, 1821.

Catalog Record

821.11.06.01

Acquired September 2023

The history and antiquities of the county of Essex

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Extra-illustrated and expanded to 5 volumes, each volume with an added printed title page dated 1908 and bound in early 20th-century red crushed levant full morocco gilt

  • Author: Morant, Philip, 1700-1770.
  • Title: The history and antiquities of the county of Essex : compiled from the best and most ancient historians, from Domesday-book, Inquisitiones post mortem, and other the most valuable records and mss. &c. / the whole digested, improved, perfected, and brought down to the present time, by Philip Morant ; illustrated with copper plates.
  • Published: London : Printed for T. Osborne …, J. Whiston …, S. Baker …, L. Davis and C. Reymers … and B. White …, 1768.

Catalog Record

Folio 64 Es75 768

Acquired September 2023

Engravings of an historical fact of a Swiss shepherd…

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This set of prints were advertised in the December 1817 newspaper as “A series of Engravings in Seven Parts, representing the sufferings of a Swiss Shepherd during the revolution of that country, and intended as illustrations of the Lord’s Prayer. Printed on Royal Quarto, price 10s. 6d”. In Ackermann’s own The Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions (Vol. IV, December 1st, 1817), they are listed in the catalogue under “Intelligence, Literary, Scientific” prints and are described as “Engravings of an historical fact of a Swiss Shepherd during the revolution of that country…”

  • Title: [Engravings of an historical fact of a Swiss shepherd during the revolution of that country] [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Published Jany. 1, 1818, at R. Ackermann’s, 101, Strand, London, [1 January 1818]

Catalog Record

818.01.01.05

Acquired July 2023

Do you want any brick-dust

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“A pretty young maidservant stands on a doorstep (right) while a man, Irish in appearance, gazes insinuatingly into her face as he fills her bowl with brick-dust from a jar. He has an ass which stands patiently, a double sack pannier-wise across his back and a second jar or measure standing on the sack. The profile of a shrewish old woman looks through the door at the couple, who are intent on each other. A dog barks at the girl. Behind is a street, the nearer houses tall the farther ones lower and gabled. At the doorway opposite a woman appears to be giving food to a poor woman and child. A man and woman lean from the attic windows of adjacent houses to converse. A little chimney-sweep emerges from a chimney, waving his brush.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Merke, Henri, printmaker.
  • Title: Do you want any brick-dust [graphic] / Rowlandson delin. ; Merke sculp.
  • Publication: London : Pub. Feb. 20, 1799, at R. Ackermann’s, 101 Strand, [20 February 1799]

Catalog Record

799.02.20.03+

Acquired April 2023

The falling of the new Brunswick Theatre

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“Interior of the theatre collapsing over people who are trying to escape, including a couple in the centre under the falling chandelier, some figures trapped under collapsed pillars, another couple on the balcony in the left middle distance.”–British Museum online catalogue.

 

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, Robert, 1789-1856, printmaker.
  • Title: The falling of the new Brunswick Theatre [graphic] / Robert Cruikshank fecit.
  • Publication: [London] : Published by J. Didsbury, 22, Southampton Street, Covent Garden, [1828]

Catalog Record

828.02.27.02+

Acquired November 2022

A merry Christmas & a happy new year in London

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A pedestrian struggles through deep slushy snow, facing driving snow, with a broken umbrella, the spokes projecting through the cover. He clutches at his cloak and hat; he wears gaiters to the knee with socks over them, and overshoes. Cape and comforter stream behind him. In the background are two buildings. Other figures also struggling through the snow are faintly etched in the distance.

  • Title: A merry Christmas & a happy new year in London [graphic].
  • Publication: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [not before 1825]

Catalog Record

825.00.00.127

Acquired February 2022