Diamond cut diamond, or, A whimsical information

description below

“The Lord Mayor sits (right) in profile to the left in a chair of state facing a city officer in a long gown holding a wand who leads in a file of five amused ‘cits’, three men and two women. The officer says: “Here are a number of People brought before your Honor, by your Honor’s Order, for not keeping the pavement clean before their Houses in Frosty Weather – according to the Act of Parliament for that purpose; but the worst of all is – here is a Worthy Alderman, lays information, that the pavement before your Honor’s Door is as much neglected as any of the rest – and moreover says that he himself had a fall there in the late Frost, which shook him so much, that he has been unable to digest Turtle or Venison ever since – A material injury to one of the Body Corporate.” The alderman, who heads the file, clasps an enormous paunch. The Mayor answers, proffering a coin: “Well, Well, if that is the case, take my five Shillings, and say no more about the Business.” The Mayor wears spectacles and a chain of office; he has not the plebeian appearance of the alderman and his companions. (Charles Price was Lord Mayor 1802-3.)”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Roberts, P. (Piercy), active 1785-1824, printmaker, publisher.
  • Title: Diamond cut diamond, or, A whimsical information [graphic] / Woodward delin. ; etch’d by Roberts.
  • Publication: London : Pubd. by P. Roberts, 28 Middle Row, Holborn, [1803?]

Catalog Record

803.00.00.53+

Acquired February 2024

The OP spectacles

description below

“The full face of Clifford, based on a fashionably swathed neck-cloth and high coat-collar, fills the design. The mouth is open as if shouting. The eyes and part of the cheeks are covered by circles representing huge spectacles. Each contains a symmetrical view of Covent Garden Theatre seen from the stage, showing pit, three tiers of boxes, and the centre of the two galleries (the ‘pigeon-holes’ not appearing), all crowded. The views differ only in the performers on the stage, two actors on the right (one clearly Kemble, probably as Macbeth), and on the left two actors and a file of soldiers. Superimposed on the middle of each circular design is a large ‘O’ (left) and ‘P’ (right). Round the broad rims of the spectacles: (left) ‘Old House Old Prices & No Private Boxes’ and (right) ‘Old House Old Prices & No Pigeon Holes’. On the bridge across the nose: ‘N.P.B.’ (No Private Boxes, see British Museum Satires No. 11421).”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, Isaac, 1764-1811, printmaker.
  • Title: The OP spectacles [graphic] / Cruikshank del.
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. by T. Tegg, 111 Cheapside, Novr. 17, 1809.

Catalog Record

809.11.17.01

Acquired December 2023

Stock jobbers, or, Gazette extraordinary

description belowA crowd of rotund stock brokers sit and stand around a table and against a wall with a clock. The broker centered in the front reads from a copy of the Gazette Extraordinary while some of the others peer over his shoulders looking for news, many where glasses and one uses a glass to read the print on the page. To his left at the table is a broker holding bank stock in his right hand, and another broker knocking over a bottle of Madeira at the table.

  • Title: Stock jobbers, or, Gazette extraordinary [graphic].
  • Publication: London : Published 29 April 1795 by Haines & Son, No. 19, Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane, [29 April 1795]

Catalog Record 

795.04.29.01+

Acquired December 2019

Park-character

“Standing whole length profile portrait of a man in an oval enclosed in a rectangle. He walks from left to right, his head thrown back, his stomach projecting. He wears spectacles, a looped hat, a large tie-wig, and holds a tasselled cane.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title:Park-character [graphic].
  • Publication:[London] : Pub. Novr. 24, 1776, by MDarly, 39 Strand, [1 May 1777]

Catalog Record 

777.11.24.01

Acquired April 2018

At Exeter Cathedral

lwlpr34663-908x1024

A large, masculine-looking woman with spectacles and a hat, stands before stool on which sits an open book of music. She holds in her right hand a baton which rests on the open page.

  • CreatorNixon, John, -1818, artist.
  • TitleAt Exeter Cathedral [art original] / J.N. 1809.
  • Production[England, 1809]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

Drawings N736 no. 5

Acquired August 2016

Topsy turvy print depicting the heads…..

lwlpr32044 (717x1024)

lwlpr32044 (717x1024)

Optical illusion, showing one head which, depending on whether it is turned, appear to be either bespectaled older woman or a young woman with an object around her neck.

  • Title:[Topsy turvy print depicting the heads of both an old bespectacled woman and a young lady] [graphic].
  • Publication:[Londo : Published Jany. 12, 1790, by I. Wallis, No. 16 Ludgate Street, London, 12 January 1790]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

790.01.12.01

Acquired July 2015