Die Entdeckung

description below

A German copy of Hogarth’s “The Discovery” (1743?): a scene in a bedoom where four gentlemen stand beside a curtained bed in which a black woman reclines; she reaches out to touch the chin of one of the men who has evidently just pulled back the curtain. The scene is thought to record a practical joke carried out on the lothario John Highmore by his friends: having arranged an assignation with an attractive young woman, they replaced her with a black prostitute. When he discovered the swap, on climbing into bed, they appeared from hiding. See Paulson.

  • Printmaker: Heintz, C. F., printmaker.
  • Title: Die Entdeckung [graphic] / lith. v. C. F. Heintz.
  • Publication: [Germany?] : [publisher not identified], [between 1833 and 1836]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 830.00.00.01 Box 140

Acquired January 2021

The old bachelor’s thermometer

description below

The image at top shows an old man sitting in an armchair on the right, his gouty foot resting on a footstool, a crutch seen leaning against a stool beside him. He looks up at a younger woman on the left, who wears a bonnet and apron and is looking down and away from him. Draperies and a framed picture of Cupid shooting an arrow decorate the wall behind them. The text below, in two columns with an age listed at the beginning of each line, tells the humorous tale of the consequences of a man putting off marriage for prideful reasons from age “16 – incipient palpitations towards the young ladies”, through the ages of “29 – rails against the fair sex”, “37 – indulge in every kind of dissipation”, and “48 – thinks living alone quite irksome …”. Eventually, he resolves to have a prudent young woman as housekeeper and companion, gradually feeling some attachment to her and becoming completely under her influence. At age 60, as he begins to feel ill, and “grows rapidly worse, has his will made in her favour, and makes an exit.”

  • Title: The old bachelor’s thermometer. The old maid’s thermometer [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Published by S. and J. Fuller, 34, Rathbone-Place, [between 1809 and 1839]
  • Manufacture: [London] : Printed by L. Harrison, 373, Strand.

Catalog Record

809.00.00.64

Acquired March 2020

Anticipation, or, Taxes as they will be!!

In seven scenes in a design of two tiers, citizens dispute the oppressive fees imposed by a zealous tax collector who taxes bugs, pets, a bulbous nose and a runny nose, corns on a foot, and a man’s skin. In the scene on the upper right, the tax collector penalizes a man whom he accuses of evading tax as he defecates in a bush.

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, Isaac, 1756?-1811?, printmaker.
  • Title: Anticipation, or, Taxes as they will be!! [graphic] / Woodward delnt.
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. June 1st, 1796, by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly, corner of Sackville Street …, [1 June 1796]

Catalog Record 

796.06.01.03+

Acquired October 2019

The gout

A man sits in an armchair facing right, resting his gouty left foot on a footrest; a cane rests between his legs. He rings a bell and looks over his right shoulder at a young servant who is leaving the room through a door on the left. A hill is visible through a window on the right.

  • Title: The gout [graphic].
  • Publication: [Alnwick] : Printed and published by W. Davison, Alnwick, [between 1812 and 1817]

Catalog Record 

812.00.00.104

Acquired September 2019

The town tooth drawer

The interior of a well-furnished room. The dentist stands in front of a middle-aged woman seated in a chair (right); he holds her forehead with one hand, with the other he applies a small instrument to her mouth. She grasps a shawl in her left hand. A black boy in livery stands behind the dentist (left) holding an open case of instruments; he looks round grinning. A young woman stands clasping her hands and looking with an expression of horrified concern at the operation. The dentist wears a bag-wig. A cat arches its back and meows. Through a draped sash-window is a steeple. On the wall is a bird in a cage and an oval landscape. Below it is a settee on which sheef of paper.

  • Title: The town tooth drawer [graphic].
  • Publication: [Alnwick] : Printed and published by W. Davison, Alnwick, [between 1812 and 1817]

Catalog Record 

812.00.00.100

Acquired September 2019

[Interior of a gothic crypt]

lwlpr32043 (724x1024)

Interior of a gothic vault, with a tomb on the left lit by a hanging lamp and decorated with a reclining man in tudor dress holding a baton; to right are a couple leaning against a pillar, and a man holding a torch gesturing towards the tomb …”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • PrintmakerManskirch, Franz Joseph, 1768-1840, printmaker.
  • Title[Interior of a gothic crypt] [graphic] / Mannskirsch delt. & sculp.
  • PublicationLondon : Pubd. Feby. 16, 1799, at R. Ackermanns, 101 Strand …, [16 February 1799]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

799.02.16.02+

Acquired July 2015