The Hombourg waltz, with characteristic sketches of family dancing!

description below

Members of the Royal Family at an informal dance, the centre couple being Princess Elizabeth, grotesquely stout, and the Prince of Hesse-Homburg, who grasps her dress, unable to reach her waist.

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, printmaker.
  • Title: The Hombourg waltz, with characteristic sketches of family dancing! [graphic] / Knahskiurc [that is, Cruikshank] fect.
  • Publication: London : Published May 4, 1818, by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s St., nephew & successor to the late Mrs. H. Humphrey, [4 May 1818]

Catalog Record

818.05.04.01

Acquired September 2023

A satire on gin-drinking

description below

A satire on gin drinking: In a cellar distillery with a large cask a group of male figures with the heads of monkeys and women with heads of cats are drinking heavily with some vomiting.

 

  • Title: [A satire on gin-drinking] [graphic].
  • Publication: [London?] : [Robert Sayer?], [1766?]

Catalog record

766.00.00.08+ Impression 2

Acquired November 2022

Snuff and twopenny

description below

An ugly woman with only two teeth and with holes in her sleeve, shown half-length to left, a scarf over her head and tied under her chin, one hand around a tankard, holding up the other hand with thumb and forefinger pinched together, a small round snuff box on the table.

 

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

Catalog Record

812.00.00.107 Impression 2

Acquired August 2022

Evening, or, The man of feeling

description belowThree men sit by a supper-table, a grandfather-clock behind them points to XI. The man on the left is having his jack-boots pulled off by a small boy; the boy stands astride his right leg pulling hard, his back to the man, who is scowling and pushes his other booted foot against the boy’s back; on the floor are a pair of spurs, a pair of slippers, and a boot-jack. A man (right) wearing a night-cap, but otherwise completely dressed and wearing spurred boots, leans one elbow on the table, his face contorted as if in pain, he holds his hand to his thigh. On the table beside him is a small packet inscribed “Diaculum”. In the centre, and on the farther side of the table, the third man leans both elbows on the table, his hair is tousled and his eyes are shut. A servant behind, yawning, is carrying off a square box, probably a wig-box, while a maidservant stands on the right, a candle in one hand, a warming-pan in the other, watching with amusement the efforts of the boy to pull off the boot. Three hats hang on the wall; a bottle, a plate, three wine-glasses, and a guttering candle, burnt down to the socket, stand on the table. See related image in the British Museum catalogue.

 

  • Title: Evening, or, The man of feeling [graphic] / design’d by W.H. Bunbury Esqr.
  • Publication: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [ca. 1818]

Catalog Record

816.00.00.81+

Acquired November 2020

A Portugal catch for three voices

description below

“Three men sit, singing a catch, with a round table between them. A British officer (perhaps Cotton), wearing a cocked hat, sits in profile to the right, facing Dalrymple who sits (right) with tightly closed mouth, his hands on his knees. Between them, but with his chair from Dalrymple, sits a man in Spanish (here Portuguese) dress, wearing a feathered hat. The British officer sings: T’was You Sir-Hew – Twas Hew. that let the French Escape, That makes you look so blue Sir-Hew Sir Hew! He and the Portuguese (perhaps Freire) point minatory hands at Dalrymple, whose face is painted lead colour. On the wall are two pictures: (above the Portuguese) ‘A correct representation of the French Plunderers stopt in their progress by the Spanish Patriots.’ [at Baylen] and (above Dalrymple): ‘A Correct representation of the French Plunderers quitting Portugal for France – under a British Escort.’ In one a long train of wagons is stopped by armed men, in the other are ships in full sail. On the table are glasses and decanters of ‘Port and Calcavella’.”–British Museum online catalogue.

 

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: A Portugal catch for three voices [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. Octr. 1808 by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly, [October 1808]

Catalog Record

808.10.00.04+

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

Le plan de campagne de 1806

description below

A French satire on the British administration, who are gathered around a table with bottles and glasses (two of which are toppled over) and a battle plan (’Plan de Berlin’) drawn on the tablecloth. In1806, French forces under Napoleon occupied Prussia, pursued the remnants of the shattered Prussian Army, and captured Berlin.

 

  • Title: Le plan de campagne de 1806, ou, Les deliberations des politiques anglais sur la guere [graphic].
  • Publication: A Paris : Chez Martinet, [1806]

Catalog Record

806.00.00.54+

Acquired May 2020

Banditti

description belowThe 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.

  • Printmaker: Boyne, John, approximately 1750-1810, printmaker.
  • Title: Banditti [graphic] / I.B.
  • Publication: [London] : Published by E. Hedges No. 92 Cornhill, Dec. 22, 1783.

Catalog Record

783.12.22.03.2+ Impression 2

Acquired December 2019

Out of place and unpension’d

A gentleman is shown half-length in profile to the right, pressing a walking stick to his chin and holding his hat under his arm; he stands in a disconsolate manner at table on the right on which are set tankard lettered “small beer” and paper “W. Davison druggist Alnwick sells”.

  • Title: Out of place and unpension’d [graphic].
  • Publication: [Alnwick] : Printed and published by W. Davison, Alnwick, [between 1812 and 1817]

Catalog Record 

812.00.00.119

Acquired September 2019

The tailor and cobler

A tailor and cobbler, both are partially bald, are seated with their backs to roaring fire in the grate of a fireplace. The cobbler is sitting at a table with a glass and tankard in front of him; he is smoking a pipe and blowing the smoke into the tailor’s face. The tailor sits slumped forward in a state of evident inebriation and his own pipe lies broken on the floor. On the wall behind them is a picture of a man seated under a tree sketching(?) the rural scene in front of him, a church with a steeple in the distance.

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

Catalog Record 

812.00.00.115

Acquired September 2019