The martyr of equality

description below

“Orléans (Égalité), looking to the right, stands on the scaffold dressed as a grenadier of the National Guard. He holds out by the hair the decollated head of Louis XVI, while he waves his cap in his right hand. Behind (left) is the guillotine, with the King’s body; streams of blood pour from head and trunk. Below the scaffold (right) are heads and bayonets of the National Guard, and, behind, two large buildings, the windows and roofs filled with spectators; those on the roof wave their hats.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, Isaac, 1764-1811, printmaker.
  • Title: The martyr of equality [graphic] / I. Cruikshanks.
  • Publication: London : Pub. Feb. 12, 1793, by S.W. Fores, N. 3 Piccadilly, [12 February 1793]

Catalog Record

793.02.12.02

Acquired September 2023

A collection of twenty-four caricatures

printed text

  • Title: A collection of twenty-four caricatures : which have appeared in Paris since the late revolution ; with an introduction and explanatory remarks annexed to each plate.
  • Publication: London : Chalres Tilt, 86, Fleet Street, MDCCCXXXI [1831]
  • Manufacture: Paris : Printed by Fain, Rue, Racine, no. 4, Place de l’Odeon

Catalog Record

82 831C

Acquired July 2023

Le colera de Napoleon

description below

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).

  • Title: Le colera de Napoleon [graphic].
  • Publication: [Spain] : [publisher not identified], [1808 or 1809?]

Catalog Record

808.00.00.38+

Acquired April 2023

J.H. Barrow’s journal

manuscript journal

A manuscript journal recording John Henry Barrow’s nine-month Continental journey through France, Switzerland, and Italy in the immediate post-Waterloo period.

 

  • Author: Barrow, John Henry.
  • Title: J.H. Barrow’s journal : manuscript.
  • Production: France, Switzerland, and Italy, 1816 May-1817 February.

Catalog Record

LWL Mss Vol. 279

Acquired March 2022

The peddigree of Corporal Violet

description below

“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.

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, George, 1780-1842, printmaker.
  • Title: The peddigree of Corporal Violet [graphic] / etchd. by G. Cruikk. ; G.H. invt. et del.
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. by H. Humphrey June 9th, 1815 – No. 27 St. James’s St., [9 June 1815]

Catalog Record

815.06.15.02+

Acquired April 2023

Massacre of the French king!

printed text

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.”

 

  • Title: Massacre of the French king! : view of la guillotine, or the modern beheading machine, at Paris, by which the unfortunate Louis XVI (late King of France) suffered on the scaffold, January 21st, 1793.
  • Publication: London : Printed at the Minerva Office, for William Lane, Leadenhall-Street, and sold wholesale at one guinea per hundred : And retail by every bookseller, stationer, &c. in England, Scotland and Ireland, [1793]

Catalog Record

File 82 793M++

Acquired November 2022

Impartial thoughts on war and peace

printed text

  • Title: Impartial thoughts on war and peace : together with some hints regarding the ability of Great Britain to carry on the contest, should it be unavoidable.
  • Manufacture: [London] : Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James’s, [1803]

Catalog Record

File 63 803 Im34

Acquired August 2021

Contrasted opinions respecting the new emperor

description below

“Two tiers of single English figures expressing appropriate opinions about the coronation of Napoleon.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: Contrasted opinions respecting the new emperor [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. July 16th, 1804, by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly, [16 July 1804]

Catalog Record

804.07.16.03+

Acquired November 2020

Journal of a tour through part of France, Flanders, and Holland

book, printed text

  • Author: Stevenson, Seth William, 1784-1853, author.
  • Title: Journal of a tour through part of France, Flanders, and Holland : including a visit to Paris, and a walk over the field of Waterloo: made in the summer of 1816 / by Seth William Stevenson.
  • Publication: Norwich : Printed (not for sale) at the Norfolk Chronicle Press, by Stevenson, Matchett, and Stevenson, 1817.

Catalog Record

82 817St

Acquired May 2021

A true and minute account of the destruction of the Bastile

title page

  • Author: Calet, Jean Jacques.
  • Title: A true and minute account of the destruction of the Bastile [sic] / by Jean Jacques Calet, a French protestant : who had been a prisoner there upwards of twenty years, and who recovered his liberty on, and who assisted at the demolition of that infamous prison ; translated from the French by an English gentleman.
  • Published: London : Printed by W. Browne and J. Warren, 22, Poppins Court, and sold for the author, by C. Stalker, Stationers-Court, Ludgate-Street ; J. Walter, Piccadilly ; and all the Booksellers in town and country, 1789.

Catalog Record

82 789C

Acquired January 2021