“Caricature with a family of a working man, his wife and daughter dressed in fashionable clothes, with a cottage and pig on a dung-hill in the background.”–British Museum online catalogue.
A satire on the aspirations of the working classes. The affluently dressed dustman’s wife asks her husband if he has seen the latest issue of ‘La Bells Ass-emblee’ (John Bell’s La Belle Assemblée, or Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine).
- Printmaker: Marks, John Lewis, printmaker.
- Title: The march of interlect, or, A dust-man & family of the 19th century [graphic] / Marks fect.
- Publication: London : Published by J.L. Marks, 17 Artillery St., Bishopsgate, [approximately 1824]
824.00.00.64
Acquired November 2022
The Coalition ministers are gathered around the table placed in the mouth of a cave. On the left sits Lord North wearing armor under his cloak, a goblet in his left hand. Opposite him on the right is Charles Fox, dressed as a centurion and sitting on a fox. He leans on the table keeping his right hand on three dice signed, “Madras,” “Bombay,” and “Bengal,” and clutching a dice box in his left. Behind him Admiral Keppel, the date of the battle of Ushant (1778) on his helmet, raises his goblet in a toast. Behind him Sheridan, with ass’s ears and “School for Scandal” written across his head cover, watches the Duke of Portland count out money to Lord Carlisle. On Portland’s shoulder leans Lord Cavendish in a centurion’s armor under his cloak. Between him and North sits Burke in a Jesuit’s outfit reading his own “Plan of oeconomy [sic].” Under the table lie the corpses of Lords Shelburne and Ashburton, ousted by the Coalition.
A fat parson riding (right to left) on a small horse arrives at the high iron gate of his house, which is seen in the background. He points arrogantly to a groom in livery, who stands (left) holding another horse whose front half appears on the left. The groom raises his hat. A butler stands in front of the gate. In the distance among trees (right) is a church spire.
