Symmetry

description below

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

  • Title: Symmetry [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Published by G. Tregear, 123 Cheapside, London, [not after 1833]

Catalog Record

833.00.00.17+

Acquired February 2022

Spectators at a print-shop

description below

“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.

  • Printmaker: Smith, John Raphael, 1752-1812, printmaker.
  • Title: Spectators at a print-shop in St. Paul’s Church Yard [graphic].
  • Edition: [State with plate no.].
  • Publication: [London] : Printed for Carington Bowles, at his map & print warehouse, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London, published as the act directs […] [not before 25 June 1774]

Catalog Record

774.06.25.01

Acquired November 2021

A sharp bite

description below

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.

  • Title: sharp bite [graphic].
  • Publication: London : Published by Thos. McLean, 26 Haymarket, [1824?]

Catalog Record

824.00.00.12 Impression 2

Acquired July 2020

Taking a fly

description below

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.

  • Title: Taking a fly [graphic].
  • Publication: London : Published by Thos. McLean, 26 Haymarket, [1824?]

Catalog Record

824.00.00.11 Impression 2

Acquired July 2020

The Norfolk method of improving the breed

description below

“Thomas Coke of Norfolk leads his bride through a pastoral landscape; he prances gaily along hat in hand, turning to look at her, and singing, Oh the Days when I was Young; in his left hand is a book: Coke upon Littleton [see British Museum Satires No. 14423]. She takes his left arm, holding back the gauze veil that floats from a bonnet trimmed with flowers and towering feathers. Her tight-waisted pelisse has a deep crimson border. She is gravely demure, but sings: Of all the Gay Lads that Dance on the Green, Old Tommys the Lad for Me. He looks younger than 67, she older than 18. Behind them (right) is a country church, before them a signpost pointing To the Breeding Park and To the Nursery. An old ram branded C approaches a sheep; a French greyhound prances towards a decrepit and shaggy dog.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  • Title: The Norfolk method of improving the breed [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pub. March 26th, 1822, by S.W. Fores, 41 Picadilly [sic], [26 March 1822]

Catalog Record

822.03.26.01+

Acquired May 2021

Evening

description below

The third print in the series “Four Times of the Day” is set at Sadler’s Wells. “A dyer and his wife walking with their dog beside the New River; the wife holds a fan with a design of Aphrodite and Adonis, the husband carries a small child, a somewhat older boy stands behind them in tears because his sister is demanding the gingerbread figure he holds; behind them is a young woman holding a shoe and a cow being milked by another woman; to the right is a tavern with the sign of Sir Hugh Middleton’s Head, two women and a man are in the tavern garden, other figures are visible through the window, and a grape vine is climbing up towards the roof.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Cook, Thomas, approximately 1744-1818, printmaker.
  • Title: Evening [graphic] / designed by Wm. Hogarth ; engraved by T. Cook.
  • Publication: [London] : Published December the 1st, 1797, by G.G. & J. Robinson, Pater-noster Row, London, [1 December 1797]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 797.12.01.01++ Box 310

Acquired January 2021

Going to court he’s arrested at St. James’s Gate

description below

“Piracy of plate IV of Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress with considerable differences: a scene in St James’s Street with the Rake (here named Ramble) emerging from a sedan-chair to be arrested for debt; figures in the foreground include a Welshman, probably the creditor, honouring St David’s day (March 1st) with a leek in his hat, “Nanny” offering a handful of money to reprieve her former lover, and a lamp-lighter carelessly spilling oil on the Rake’s coat; in the distance to left, a group of street-boys point to “Taffy”, a mannikin, perched on a lamp-post, and beyond the gate of St James’s Palace.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Bowles, Thomas, -1767, printmaker.
  • Title: Going to court he’s arrested at St. James’s Gate [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : [John Bowles], [1735]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 735.00.00.20+ Box 200

Acquired January 2021

The library

description belowA scene in a fashionable library with ladies and gentlemen conversing with attendants at the counters on either side. On the left a woman looks in a book while her male companion converses with a clergyman, as the woman behind the counter consults a book. On the right, a man sits in a chair as a lady discusses her choices with the man behind the counter who reaches for a book below a sign ‘Stamp’. Behind him is another sign “Just published […]” An older woman with a walking stick approaches the counter on the right, followed by a Black servant and a dog. The windows are filled with books and prints. Through the open door a woman with an umbrella is silhouetted; to the left another sign “History Westminster and its monuments.”

 

  • Printmaker: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, printmaker.
  • Title: The library [graphic] / J. Green delt.
  • Publication: [London] : [R. Ackermann], [1813]

Catalog Record

813.00.00.24

Acquired November 2020

The Ram’s Head Inn

men in a tavern

A scene in a tavern with a pair of inebriated men sitting on a bench in front of fireplace, smoking pipes and drinking from tankards, a dog at their feet. Another man from the next booth leans over the wall to engage them in conversation which they seem not to enjoy. In the next booth (right) a group of four men play cards while a fifth looks on.

 

  • Artist: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, artist.
  • Title: [The Ram’s Head Inn] [art original].
  • Production: [England], [ca. 1785]

Catalog Record

Drawings R79 no.16 Box 2

Acquired August 2020

A capital joke

description belowA group of gentlemen seated at an oval table, with glasses full of wine, laugh uproariously at a joke as they look down at the dog at the foot of the table.

 

  • Title: A capital joke [graphic].
  • Publication: London : Pub. Sept. 1823 by J. Dickinson, 114 New Bond St., [September 1823]

Catalog Record

823.09.00.02

Acquired June 2020