Johnny Bull on the look-out

description below

“John Bull (right), a fat citizen wearing spectacles, holds aside a curtain, revealing Napoleon and Joséphine enthroned, side by side. He stands in profile to the left, a large pistol under his left arm, his left hand in his coat-pocket. He says: “Boney – Boney, that wont do – You must not Play my King & Queen.” Napoleon, wearing a huge bicorne, a drawn sabre in his right hand, frowns at John. Joséphine wears a crown, holds sceptre and orb and looks complacently to the left. Both sit with right foot planted regally on a stool, and left leg arrogantly thrust forward.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: Johnny Bull on the look-out, or, Bonaparte detected drilling his rib at the play of King & Queen of England [graphic] : scene St. Cloud.
  • Publication: [London] : Publish’d Septr. 12, 1803, by Laurie & Whittle, 53 Fleet Street, London, [12 September 1803]

Catalog Record

803.09.12.01

Acquired November 2023

The political cocks

description below

“Two fighting-cocks, with the heads of Napoleon and Pitt, face each other across the English Channel. Napoleon (left) has a large ruff of tricolour feathers and enormously long spurs, but his wings and tail feathers are clipped. His cliff is the higher; he leans forward, saying, “Eh Master Billy, if I could but take a flight over this Brook I would soon stop your Crowing, I would Knock you off that Perch, I swear by Mahomet, the Pope and all the Idols I have ever Worshiped.” Pitt stands on a large royal crown which brings his feet almost to a level with those of Bonaparte; he stands erect, thus towering above his rival; he has very short spurs but a fine tail and wings; he crows: “Tuck a roo – too that you never can do!!!” Below them lies the sea with a fleet of ships in full sail close to the English coast.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: The political cocks [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. March 27th, 1803, by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly, [27 March 1803]

Catalog Record

803.03.27.01

Acquired November 2023

Long faces at Bayonne

description below

“Napoleon (left) and Joseph sit side by side on low seats or stools, both with a hand on each knee. They have large, elongated heads broadly caricatured (as in British Museum Satires No. 10604, &c.) and look sideways at each other with drawn-down mouths and wrinkled foreheads. Napoleon is in uniform, wearing a feathered bicorne; Joseph wears a crown with Spanish dress, ermine-trimmed robe, and the order of the Golden Fleece. His seat is, very inconspicuously, a commode. At his feet is a sceptre with a scroll inscribed ‘Servata Fides Cineri’. Napoleon says: “A pretty piece of Business we have made of it Brother Joe.” Joseph: “I always told you Nap, what would come of makeing too free with the Spaniards.””–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: Long faces at Bayonne, or, King Nap and King Joe in the dumps [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. Augt. 1808 by Walker, No. 7 Cornhill, [August 1808]

Catalog Record

808.08.00.01+

Acquired February 2024

Adulation, or, A coronation oration by the Jack Pudding of the nation

description below

“George IV, crowned, and with orb and sceptre, sits on a coronation chair in Westminster Abbey (right). The Archbishop, well characterized, stands beside him, holding his mitre, his right hand on the chair. On the King’s right hand stands Londonderry (Castlereagh) in Garter robes; other peers stand behind him. All watch the antics of Canning, dressed in parti-coloured clothes as a merry-andrew or buffoon. He kneels on the dais at the King’s feet, arms flung wide; at his feet is a high-crowned hat with a peacock’s feather; on the back of his tunic are the letters M P and P C. He declaims: The delight of the Nation at the Celebration of your Majesty’s Coronation, the Exultation throughout the Creation exceeds all Imagination. the Expectation to which the Anticipation of this Consumation has given occasion is beyond Contemplation; we offer the Oblation of our Congratulation, without Hesitation or Trepidation; no Tribulation can effect a Cessation of the Sensation which pervades every Station; no Situation in whatever Deprivation will utter an Execration for the Association are in Preparation to effect an Extirpation of all Defamation. We hope the Expectation of a Decollation will produce Annihilation of all Deviation from strict Regulation; we submit to Subjugation without Hesitation, and we offer our Oration with gratefull Adoration upon this Jollification. The King composedly touches (or kicks) Canning’s chin with his toe. Peeresses stand in a gallery across the north transept, holding their coronets. Above them is a second and more crowded gallery.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: Adulation, or, A coronation oration by the Jack Pudding of the nation [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. July 1821 by S.W. Fores, Piccadilly, [July 1821]

Catalog Record

821.07.00.04

Acquired September 2023

The coronation of the Empress of the Nairs

description below

Lady Hertford reclines in an ornate bath, into which water gushes from the jaws of a monster which decorates the pedestal of a Venus. The bath is raised on a triple dais and backed by the pillars and canopy which frame the Venus forming the centre of the design. The Regent, in royal robes, ascends the steps of the dais, poised on his toes like a ballet-dancer, and places a crownlike marquis’s coronet on the head of Lady Hertford who leans towards him, her enormous breasts appearing over the edge of the bath. She says: “I proclaim the Freedom of the Sex & the Supremacy of Love.” Lord Hertford, who bestrides the pedestal, looks down delightedly from behind the statue of Venus. He has horns, and holds his Chamberlain’s staff. The water pours from the bath through the nostrils of a bull’s head with which it is ornamented, and falls in a triple cascade into a circular basin in the centre foreground. On each side of the statue of Venus and flanking the dais is a statue in a niche: ‘Aspasia’ (left) and ‘Messalina’ (right); both are disrobing. Near the fountain (right) a hideous hag, naked to the waist, crouches before a tall brazier in which she burns a ‘Mantle of Modesty’. The building appears to be circular, an arc of the wall forming a background on each side of the centre-piece. On this are tablets inscribed respectively ‘Hic Jacet Perdita’ [Mary Robinson, the Prince’s first mistress, see No. 5767, &c.]; ‘Hic Jacet Armstead’ [Mrs. Fox, who had been the Prince’s mistress, cf. No. 10589]; ‘Hic J[acet] Vauxhall Bess’ [Elizabeth Billington, see British Museum Satires No. 9970; her mother sang at Vauxhall, see British Museum Satires No. 6853]. In the foreground on the extreme right a buxom young woman puts her arms round the Duke of Cumberland, saying, “I’ll go to Cumberland”; he walks off with her, to the fury of an admiral just behind the lady who clutches his sword and is seemingly her husband. Cumberland wears hussar uniform with a shako and fur-bordered dolman, with a star and a large sabre. A meretricious-looking young woman (? Mrs. Carey) puts her arms round the Duke of York, saying, “And I to York.” The Duke, who wears uniform with a cocked hat and no sword, looks down quizzically at her. Behind him a tall thin officer in hussar uniform bends towards Princess Charlotte, taking her hand; he says: “Sure & I’ll go to Wales.” She runs eagerly towards him. As a pendant to these figures, Grenadiers stand at attention on the left, holding bayoneted muskets; they have huge noses, and smile at a buxom lady wearing spurred boots who addresses them with outstretched arm, saying, “And you for Buckinghamshire.” At her feet is an open book: ‘Slawkenberges Chapr on Noses’ [from Sterne’s Slawkenbergius, imaginary author of a Rabelaisian fantasy in ‘Tristram Shandy’]. They have a standard with the word ‘Buckin …’ on it. Behind the Prince (left) stands Tom Moore, looking up at the coronation; he holds an open book: ‘Little Poems / Ballad . . .’ He says: “I’ll give you one Little Song More [see British Museum Satires No. 12082].” Behind him stands Mrs. Jordan, placing a chamber-pot on the head of the Duke of Clarence, who wears admiral’s uniform with trousers.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, printmaker.
  • Title: The coronation of the Empress of the Nairs [graphic] / G. Cruikshank sculpt.
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. September 1st, 1812, by W.N. Jones, No. 5 Newgate St., [1 September 1812]

Catalog Record

812.09.01.01++

Acquired September 2023

A king-fisher

description below

“George IV sits on a small stone among tall bulrushes at the water’s edge in profile to the left, fishing, his rod being a sceptre. Leaning forward, he looks anxiously at his tautening line. On his head is poised a small but massive crown, a creel hangs at his back; he wears quasi-military dress, white gauntlet gloves, and breeches with jack-boots (cf. British Museum Satires No. 14220). In the foreground, looking up at him, is a kingfisher. In the background, at the water’s edge, is a small thatched peasant’s cottage behind which is Windsor Castle, on its wooded hill, flying the Royal Standard (cottage and castle being mere symbols). Below the title is a circular garter inscribed Honi. Soit. Qui. Mal. Y. Pense.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: A king-fisher [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate Hill, May 1826.

Catalog Record

836.05.00.01+

Acquired September 2023

Actor of all work

description below

“Wellington sits behind a small cloth-covered table flanked by eight other representations of himself, as depicted in recent caricatures, apparently all by W. Heath. The arrangement is evidently that of Charles Mathews’ ‘At Homes’, see British Museum Satires No. 14714, &c., Wellington, like Mathews, being in propria persona at the table. In this guise he wears the robes (indistinguishable from Coronation robes) and collar of the Garter and the order of the Golden Fleece and a (crown-like) ducal coronet; his head is turned in profile to the right. Immediately below him, the head and hands of another Wellington, who is crouching on the floor, project from the tablecloth; he grasps a royal crown, and wears a cap coloured blue and resembling a tam-o’-shanter, but perhaps intended for a coronet. The other Wellingtons, all standing (left to right): [1] A mute as in British Museum Satires No. 15501, in profile to the right. [2] A Grenadier, full-face and rigidly at attention, much as in British Museum Satires No. 15768, but without the musket. [3] A ratcatcher stooping to the left and touching his hat, the cage in his left hand (cf. British Museum Satires No. 15806). [4] Aged and cloaked, wearing spectacles, with bowed head, he clasps a cross in both hands. [5] The old woman in a soldier’s coat of British Museum Satires No. 15721, facing, and apparently in angry altercation with, the seated Wellington. [6] The coachman of British Museum Satires No. 15731, in profile to the left, holding shaft and lash of his whip as if they were the reins of a four-in-hand which he is driving. [7] Wellington in uniform, directed to the left, wearing his plumed cocked hat and holding up with a furtive expression a sword with a damaged blade in a dilapidated scabbard. [8] A mummy-case with an aperture to show Wellington’s head with the forefingers compressing his mouth; below the aperture is the word ‘Mum’. (Apparently from a satire on Wellington’s silence as to his intentions on Catholic Relief until the eve of the opening of Parliament, see British Museum Satires No. 15659.) There is a background of curtains. Cf. British Museum Satires No. 15787.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  • Title: Actor of all work [graphic] / [man with an umbrella] Esqr.
  • Publication: [London] : Pub. June 15, 1829, by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket …, [15 June 1829]

Catalog Record

829.06.15.01+

Acquired May 2023

The peerage chart for 1821

printed text

Dissected into 20 sections and mounted on linen, folding down into the original brown card slipcase

  • Author: Kingdom, William.
  • Title: The peerage chart for 1821.
  • Publication: London : Printed for the Author by Shackell and Arrowsmith, Johnson’s Court, Fleet-Street; and sold by G. & W.B. Whittaker, Ave-Maria-Lane : J. Warren, Old Bond-Street; and by all other booksellers, [1821?]

Catalog Record

Drawer 63 821 K54

Acquired September 2023

 

Peter Griffin, map & print-seller

description below

“Trade card of Peter Griffin, printseller, at Dial and Three Crowns, Next the Globe Tavern, Fleet Street, from the late Overtons; text on sheet at the centre with clock face and three crowns above; with various prints overlapping behind it, including maps, portraits, satires, and ornaments.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Le Clerc, active 1738-1775, printmaker.
  • Title: Peter Griffin, map & print-seller, at the Dial and Three Crowns, next the Globe Tavern, Fleet-Street; from the late Overtons [graphic] / le Clerc fec.
  • Publication: [London] : Sold by Peter Griffin, map & printseller at the Three Crowns & Dial, next the Globe Tavern, Fleet Street, 1747.

Catalog Record

File 66 747 G852

Acquired November 2021

A representation of the present state of France

description below

“Napoleon, pushing an officer before him through a pillared doorway, looks back to speak to a monk and a sansculotte, shackled together, who drag a car in which is an imperial crown. They hold a large scroll inscribed: ‘Most religious Sovereign – the benefactor of the church – the patron of liberty – the scourge of tyrants, and the defender of our most holy religion; may you long fill the Imperial Chair, and diffuse over a free and happy people all the blessings of your auspicious government.’ Demons fly round a tricolour flag which floats from the car. Napoleon holds out a scroll headed: ‘Address, &c. &c. &c. The Legions of France congratu – ‘, saying, “This token of your gratitude, my dear subjects will ever stimulate me to protect your liberties – to promote your happiness – and to preserve my empire from the ravages of war, tyranny and oppression.” The officer, with a cynical smile, says: “Patron of Liberty – Defender of our most holy Religion – free and happy People – Ha! ha! ha! – What may we not expect? – Has he not got them under excellent subjection?” On the left is Napoleon’s ‘Secret Chamber’: a table is covered with maps and plans; a large map, partly unrolled, shows Europe from ‘[En]gland to [Tur]key’, including the ‘Black Sea’; another map shows ‘Suez’ and the ‘Red Sea’. A demon under the table holds up a large pile of papers: ‘Plans against England’; on the floor are similar piles: ‘Religion’ and ‘Treaties’. There are also ‘Plans against Germany and Turkey’, and a paper: ‘Mem. the chance of the conquest of England is worth the sacrifice of one third of the people of France. Item. As Charlemaine not only conquered Italy, but the whole of Germany, and left the Imperial dignity hereditary in the Sovereigns of France, it is indispensably necessary to obtain possession of Germany, in order to support the dignity of the Gallic empire.’ On the wall are three pictures: ‘Sacking of Rome’, ‘Dissolution of the National Assembly’ [see British Museum Satires No. 9426, &c], and ‘View of Cairo’ [see British Museum Satires No. 9358, &c.]. Below the design: ‘Explanation. The two figures bringing the Imperial crown . . . represent . . . the bitter Enemies of Aristocracy, and the staunch Supporters of the late Monarchial Government, tackled to the National Machine, and reduced to the most abject State of Slavery by the Influence of the Military, whose congratulatory Address Bonaparte has received at the Hand of an Officer, and is introducing him into his Secret Chamber to receive Instructions. The Demons hovering over the Imperial Crown denote Five Years of Destruction; during which Period Bonaparte will overrun and ravage the greater Part of the Continent of Europe, be the Means of nearly depopulating Turkey, and finally be slain with the Sword, be cast out as an abominable Branch, and be left as Dung to rot on the Face of the Earth.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: A representation of the present state of France [graphic].
  • Publication:[London] : Published by L. Mayer, as the act directs, August 13, 1804.
  • Manufacture: [London] : Bryer, printer, Bridge Street, Blackfriars

Catalog Record

804.08.13.01+

Acquired May 2021