Christopher Columbus demonstrating how to make an egg stand on its end. The five observers look at the cracked egg, upright on the table, in amusement at the evidence of an inventive mind at work. Two other eggs intertwined with two eels lie on a plate in the center of the table. A dog peeps over the edge of the table in the foreground; the cutlery is pushed off to one side.
812.00.00.112 Impression 3
Acquired August 2022
“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.
829.00.00.118+
Acquired May 2023
An aspirational dustman in ragged clothes, a monocle hanging from his hat, and smoking a cigar, sits in a chair before the hearth reading a book, “An introduction to the pleasures of … schince by Barnart Botherum […] dedicated to the majesty of the people”. On the table are bowl, a goblet and a bottle of Port. On the wall hangs a landscape and on the mantel a bust of Shakespeare. The dog at his feet stares at the fire, the bones of fish dinner on a plate beside him. A large bell sits on the floor beside the dustman.
828.04.00.03
Acquired June 2022
Copy of a self-portrait by William Hogarth; the artist is portrayed as if on an oval canvas resting on a pile of books; in the foreground, his dog Trump, his burin and palette.
Hogarth 795.06.04.02
Acquired July 2022
“Mrs. Clarke (left) and Mrs. Carey (right) (see British Museum Satires No. 11050) berate each other; both wear evening dress, with feathers in their hair, those of Mrs. Carey being the taller. The Duke, wearing regimentals, watches the quarrel, equally distant from both. Mrs. Clarke, arms akimbo, says: “Why how now Madam Carey, although you are so Warey In saveing of your cash, John Bull and I we both will try, And settle all your hash.” [see 1803 Isaac Cruikshank print for an earlier use of this phrase, BM impression 1868,0808.7141/ PPA108823] Mrs. Carey retorts: “Why how now Madam Clarke—— Why since you thus can chatter—— And thus betray your spark—— I wonder whats the matter with, you, Madam Clarke!!” The Duke looks at Mrs. Clarke, stopping his ears, a leg raised in angry protest; he says: “Zounds! the thunder of Valencienes was Music to this”. Behind Mrs. Clarke is a cockatoo on a high perch, screaming: “go it! go it”; a chair has been overturned, and a mastiff, its collar inscribed ‘John Bull’, barks at the Duke. A small dog behind Mrs. Carey also barks. She stands with her back to the fire. On the chimney-piece a china Cupid aims his arrow at a heart on the trunk of a tree.”–British Museum online catalogue.
809.03.00.08+
Acquired November 2022
“Interior of a kitchen showing servants at leisure: a stout woman dances with a black man in the centre accompanied by a man with a wooden leg who sits playing a violin on the left; watched by others on the right, a young woman standing on a chair and supported by a young man, while a seated man wearing a tricorn smiles and points at her and an elderly woman stands with her arms folded under her apron, a dog at her heels; two posters pasted on the wall behind, shelves, bellows and other kitchen implements in the background.”–British Museum online catalogue, description of a print of the same design.
Drawings G877 no. 1 Box D205
Acquired October 2022
Two men stand on the sidewalk under a street lamp, one of whom is a dustman with a pipe sticking out of his cap who asks the other, a large tradesman in an apron about his emaciated, muzzled dog. The dialogue below the title reads: I say Joe, what makes you Muzzle Brutus? Vy he’s such a beggar for grub, he’d spile his shape in 5 minnits if it was off, and he only got sight of a butcher’s shop
833.00.00.17+
Acquired February 2022
“Satire; an extravagantly dressed woman catches a fashionable man by the arm as she points with her fan at a mezzotint droll in a print-shop window; a small dog looks up at her; an old gentleman with a stick standing on the right, stares at the prints and is surprised by a man with a warrant for his arrest.”–British Museum online catalogue.
774.06.25.01
Acquired November 2021
Three gentleman sit in a row boat fishing. As the man on the right tumbles off his chair into the river as waves hit their small boat, he accidently hooks his companion in the nose. A third man (left) looks on in horror as the man in the middle cries out in pain. Their dog has also fallen in the river from where he looks on the scene.
824.00.00.12 Impression 2
Acquired July 2020
A scene beside a river: In the foreground two men who had been fishing have been pulled into the river by the rope attached to a ferry that is crossing to the other side when the horse that is pulling it bolts down stream. A third man is about to fall into the water as well as a fourth companion chases the runaway horse and his owner.
824.00.00.11 Impression 2
Acquired July 2020