82 831C
Acquired July 2023
A Spanish version of Gillray’s 1803 satire ‘Maniac Raving’s-or-Little Boney in a Strong Fit’, the texts in the plate adapted to the Spanish relationship with France during the Peninsular War – after the invading French armies were defeated by the Spanish in Andalusia at the Battle of Bailen ‘Napoleon is frantic with rage at the news from Spain… He blames Godoy (whom he had made ‘Prince of the Algarves’) for deceiving him, apostrophizes Talleyrand, reproaches Dupont, and his second-in-command Vedel, for the capitulation of Baylen… his deceptions are discovered by the ‘perfidious Englishman’, probably Sir Hew Dalrymple, the Governor of Gibraltar’ (British Museum catalogue).
808.00.00.38+
Acquired April 2023
A manuscript journal recording John Henry Barrow’s nine-month Continental journey through France, Switzerland, and Italy in the immediate post-Waterloo period.
LWL Mss Vol. 279
Acquired March 2022
“The base of the design is a dunghill from which rises the head of Napoleon as a young republican officer, not caricatured. His head is covered by a large cup-shaped fungus, decorated with a tricolour cockade and resembling a Cap of Liberty; from its apex ascends a curving stalk, terminating in the large yellow rosette of a sunflower, centred by the head of Napoleon as Emperor, larger than that of the base, and representing an older man; like the lower one it is directed slightly to the right. Below it, leaves project from the stalk, balancing the design. On Napoleon’s head is an arrangement of stamens in the form of an imperial crown. These unite to form the long scraggy neck of the third Napoleon, a head in profile to the right, emaciated and desperate. On this head is a larger fungus than that below, projecting like an enormous hat. From it ascend the stems of a bunch of violets, copied from No. 12511, but with the addition of more flowers, and on a larger scale. It contains the profiles of Napoleon, Marie Louise, and the King of Rome, arranged exactly as in British Museum Satires No. 12511. Smaller fungi sprout from the dunghill, some flat and some conical, like caps of Liberty; on the latter tricolour cockades are indicated. Four little figures are on a slope (left) leading towards the dunghill, prepared to clear it away. In front are Blücher and Wellington, running forward, and talking to each other; one holds a spade, the other a broad hoe. Behind them is the Tsar, shouldering a pickaxe. Behind again stands Louis XVIII, with splayed gouty legs, supported on a crutch. He waves his hat to cheer them on.”–British Museum online catalogue.
815.06.15.02+
Acquired April 2023
Minerva Press broadside detailing the unfortunate end of Louis XVI on the guillotine, January 21, 1793 in Paris. The broadside includes a woodcut illustration of a man lying face down waiting for the blade of the guillotine to drop; the decree of the French National Convention authorizing the execution of “Louis Capet;” descriptions of his execution and of the guillotine–“the modern beheading machine”–and a few anecdotes indicating “that for some time [the king] had been expecting his fate.”
File 82 793M++
Acquired November 2022
File 63 803 Im34
Acquired August 2021
“Two tiers of single English figures expressing appropriate opinions about the coronation of Napoleon.”–British Museum online catalogue.
804.07.16.03+
Acquired November 2020
82 817St
Acquired May 2021
82 789C
Acquired January 2021
File 63 803 En58++
Acquired January 2021