A copy of the fourth print in William Hogarth’s series “Four Times of the Day”, set at the intersection of Rummer Court and Charing Cross. Le Sueur’s equestrian statue of Charles I can be seen in the background. It is the anniversary of the Restoration of Charles II (29 May, known as “Oak Apple Day”). In the foreground a drunken freemason (probably the corrupt magistrate Sir Thomas De Veil) is supported by a serving man. Behind them a man pours gin into a keg. To the left a barber is seen at work through a window; each pane of the shop window contains a lit candle. From a window above the barber shop, a chamber pot is being emptied onto the top of a wooden shelter under which a man and woman sleep. Beside them, a link boy crouches as he blows on the flame of his torch. Behind and to the right of the freemason, the Salisbury Flying Coach has crashed and overturned while trying to avoid a bonfire in the middle of the street; the passengers reach out the window of the coach, alarmed looks on their faces.Two men look on, one of whom appears to be a butcher. Shop and tavern signs include the barber’s which is decorated with oak leaves and advertises “Shaving Bleeding & Teeth Drawn wth. a Touch Ecce Signum”; the Rummer Tavern; the Earl of Cardigan; and, the Bagnio and the New Bagnio.
- Printmaker: Cook, Thomas, approximately 1744-1818, printmaker.
- Title: Night [graphic] / designed by Wm. Hogarth ; engraved by T. Cook.
- Published: [London] : Published February the 1.st 1798 by G.G. & J. Robinson Pater-noster Row London, [1 February 1798]
Hogarth 798.02.01.01++ Box 310
Acquired January 2021
Copy (not reversed) of the first state of Plate 6th of Hogarth’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’ (Paulson 137): Interior of a gambling house in Covent Garden where Tom has fallen, raving, on one knee having lost his money at dice; behind him a chaotic group of gamblers, most of whom fail to notice that flames and smoke are pouring over the panelling and through the door (left); to right, a highwayman (a gun and mask in his pocket) sits beside the hearth ignoring a small boy who offers him a drink, on the wall is a handbill advertising “R. Tustian Card Maker” — British Museum online catalogue. On the lower left, a man is entering a note of a loan to Lord Cogg for £500. A dog with a color “Covent Gar[den]” barks at Tom.
