Tant va la cruche à l’eau qu’enfin elle se brise

description below

“By the efforts of Pitt, who directs Addington, and of a jester wearing cap and bells, an earthenware jug representing George III is lowered into the sea and fatally damaged by striking a rock inscribed ‘Malte’. ‘Addington’ is a man of straw (his body formed of a bundle of straw), a puppet attached to a pole placarded with his name; Pitt (left) pulls threads attached to the dangling arms and legs, but looks round horrified at the disaster resulting from his machinations. The jester crouches on a rock (right); under his foot is a document: ‘Traité d’Amiens’ [see British Musueum Satires No. 9852, &c.]; he holds in both hands the rope, lowering the royal pitcher, but the other end of the rope is round Addington’s hand and thus is manipulated by Pitt. Malta is a small castellated island with a church and a sharp rock which has gashed the pitcher just where it is decorated with a dog-like lion from whose head a crown falls. The mouth of the pitcher is a profile portrait of George III crowned, and looking down with angry dismay at the fatal rock.”–British Museum online catalogue.

 

  • Title:Tant va la cruche à l’eau qu’enfin elle se brise [graphic].
  • Publication:A Paris : Chez Martinet, Rue du Coq, Saint Honoré, [ca. May 1803]

Catalog Record

803.05.00.01+

Acquired May 2020

Jubilee Fair

Jubilee Fair. Detailed description below.

“View of the Jubilee Fair in Hyde Park; in foreground to left a small stage erected with a band playing and jesters performing, a small crowd stands in front, a few tents in central foreground with signs such as “Duke of Wellington Whitbreads Intire”, and on a lamp “Dancing and Singing Here”; beyond a crowd stands by river bank watching a sham sea fight, many sailing ships on water with smoke billowing from the scene, on the opposite river bank the fair continues.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: Jubilee Fair [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Published Sept. 10, 1814, by J. Pitts, No. 14 Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials, [10 September 1814]

Catalog Record

814.09.10.01++

Acquired September 2018

The doctors in labour

Print with twelve panels relating to the affair of Mary Toft

Print with twelve panels relating to the affair of Mary Toft, “the rabbit breeder”: from top left, she is held aloft by two men and a Harlequin or Merry Andrew, she has a rabbit in either hand; she pursues a rabbit while working in a field; she dreams of being impregnated by rabbit, Cupid is shown on a cloud beside her bed holding a rabbit in either hand; she is seated in a chair attended by two women while the two men and Harlequin discuss the monstrous birth; Harlequin demonstrates that he can express milk from her breast; Harlequin feels “the rabbets leapin in her belly” while two men look on; she sits on the edge of a bed and Harlequin kneels to seize a rabbit that emerges from her skirts while a doctor raises his hands in surprise, wishing to anatomize the animal; Harlequin stands behind a table holding a balance in which he weighs dung removed from the rabbit explaining to two men that this will allow him to judge whether the animal had “breath’d in air”; doctors and midwives discuss the phenomenon around a table and Harlequin enters claiming that the birth must be “praeternatural”; a crowd of gentlemen are welcomed to the bagnio in Leicester Square where Toft is housed; two men spy from the door to Toft’s room as another hands her a dead rabbit; Toft, weeping, is led away to Bridewell by two constables while Harlequin “sits upon Repenting stool, Cursing his fate in being made a Fool. See British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: The doctors in labour, or, A new whim wham from Guildford [graphic] : being a representation of [the] frauds by which [the] Godliman woman, carried on her pretended rabbit breeding; also of [the] simplicity of our doctors, by which they assisted to carry on that imposture discover’d their own skill, & contributed to [the] Mirth, of His Majesties liege subjects.
  • Published: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [1726]

Catalog Record 

726.00.00.26+

Acquired September 2018