Bags out of place, or, A new administration

description below

“Scene in a bedroom, meanly furnished except for a four-post curtained bed (left) and a carpeted floor; it is lit by a single candle or rush-light. Lady Eldon (right), a lean and ugly virago, assails the ex-Chancellor with a shovel, holding him by the coat. He tries to escape, shrieking, I cou’dn’t in conscience my love, act with them–why, they are all in league with the Devil. Lady Eldon: Conscience, indeed! I’ll conscience you! Aye, aye, Sir, you don’t know your friends from your foes. I’ll make you learn to keep a good place when you’ve got one; you shan’t be idling at home earning nothing. What business is it of your’s who’s who as long as you have got a good place and are well paid for it. Under the bed is a box of Smuggled Goods. On the wall is a picture: Taking leave of the Court of Conscience. In this Eldon leans from a desk holding a handkerchief towards his eyes, facing a group of standing barristers. On the floor is a book: Rule a Husband and have a Husband [parodying the title of Fletcher’s comedy, ‘Rule a wife …].”–British Museum online catalogue

  • Printmaker: Phillips, John, active 1825-1831, printmaker.
  • Title: Bags out of place, or, A new administration [graphic] / Phillips fect.
  • Publication: [London] : Published by E. King, Chancery Lane, [approximately April 1827]

Catalog Record

827.04.00.03+

Acquired June 2024

Delilah depriveing Sampson…

description below

“Lady Hertford, seated regally on a small sofa, cuts locks from the head of the Regent who reclines against her knees, asleep. The locks already cut are on the ground inscribed respectively ‘Sheridan’, ‘Norfolk’, ‘Moira’, ‘Holland’, ‘Erskine’. She is about to shear off one inscribed ‘Grenville’; the last, ‘Grey’, is still on his head. The Prince, who is conventionally handsome, and wears uniform, holds a paper signed ‘[Gren]ville / Grey’; his garter, inscribed ‘Honi so . . .’, is loose, and his left hand hides the star on his breast. Lord Yarmouth (right) stands holding a guttering candle; he points to the uncut lock, saying, “Don’t forget that lock laying [on] the shoulder its Grey dy’ye see!” In his pocket is a pamphlet: ‘Art of Milling’ [see British Museum Satires No. 11842]. To leave no doubt as to his identity, a basket of fish is beside him inscribed ‘[Y]armouth Herrings’. Lady Hertford is heavily handsome; a small crown, which might pass as a tiara decorates her head; one foot rests regally on a footstool. A pillar and drapery behind her suggest regal state. On the sofa beside her is a rolled document headed ‘Road to Hertford from Pall Mall’. On the ground (left) are empty wine-bottles; on a book by the Prince’s feet, ‘Economy of Human Life’, lies a broken bottle from which wine pours. Behind (left) stands Perceval in his Chancellor of the Exchequer’s gown, watching from behind a curtain which he holds aside; Castlereagh stands behind him, saying, “By Jasus, but she’s as pretty a Barber as ever I clap’t my eyes upon.” Perceval answers: “Hush! Hush! you’l wake him before they are all cut.”.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: Delilah depriveing Sampson of those locks in which consisted his strength [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. Feby. 1812 by Walker and Knight, No. 7 Cornhill, [February 1812]

Catalog Record

812.02.00.03+

Acquired September 2023

Returned from the ball

description below

“Young woman dressed in her ballgown half-reclines on a settee in her bedroom while her elderly maid yawns with tiredness.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  • Title: Returned from the ball [graphic] / [figure of Paul Pry holding a candle].
  • Publication: [London] : Pub. by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket, [approximately 1829]

Catalog Record

829.00.00.118+

Acquired May 2023

Evening, or, The man of feeling

description belowThree men sit by a supper-table, a grandfather-clock behind them points to XI. The man on the left is having his jack-boots pulled off by a small boy; the boy stands astride his right leg pulling hard, his back to the man, who is scowling and pushes his other booted foot against the boy’s back; on the floor are a pair of spurs, a pair of slippers, and a boot-jack. A man (right) wearing a night-cap, but otherwise completely dressed and wearing spurred boots, leans one elbow on the table, his face contorted as if in pain, he holds his hand to his thigh. On the table beside him is a small packet inscribed “Diaculum”. In the centre, and on the farther side of the table, the third man leans both elbows on the table, his hair is tousled and his eyes are shut. A servant behind, yawning, is carrying off a square box, probably a wig-box, while a maidservant stands on the right, a candle in one hand, a warming-pan in the other, watching with amusement the efforts of the boy to pull off the boot. Three hats hang on the wall; a bottle, a plate, three wine-glasses, and a guttering candle, burnt down to the socket, stand on the table. See related image in the British Museum catalogue.

 

  • Title: Evening, or, The man of feeling [graphic] / design’d by W.H. Bunbury Esqr.
  • Publication: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [ca. 1818]

Catalog Record

816.00.00.81+

Acquired November 2020

“Tent-ation”

Caroline lies on a sofa within a tent

Caroline lies on a sofa within a tent, dressed in her nightclothes and wearing a miniature of Bergami around her neck; her feathered hat rests on the ground, and on the small table beside her sit bottles of “Brandy” and “Essense of Bergamo” and a container of “Rouge”. She smiles and looks over at Bergami, who sits beside her, his slippers and hat discarded on the floor below. Above, a man reaches into the tent to take a lit candle in the candlestick from Bergami, who hands it off with a pleased expression on his face. Beside him on the sofa is a book entitled “The Pilgrim’s Guide”.

  • Printmaker: Lane, Theodore, 1800-1828, printmaker.
  • Title: “Tent-ation” [graphic].
  • Publication: London : Pubd. by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s St., June 25, 1821.

Catalog Record 

821.06.25.01

Acquired March 2019