Printed trade card advertising gambling at an EO table.
File 66 780 Al444
Acquired November 2023
A collection of six gaming counters or monetary tokens from the gambling houses and clubs of Georgian London. Four were made by John Milton (signed “J. Milton f.” or “J.M” on the smaller pieces) with an ace of spades encircled with the quote “Honi soit qui mal y pense”, wreathed and crowned. The two others by Milton have on the obverse the initials “S.F.” (S. Fiuri, in Bury Street St. Mary Axe) and the date “1 May 1792” and a value of “XII” or “VI”. The two other Milton counters are marked “S&L” indicating Smith & Lockwood and the other “JL” for John Lister in Haymarket. Another small token in white metal issued by the “Cocoa Tree” with the value on the obverse “One guinea”. The last counter in gilt-brass issued by “Free Mason Tavern” and marked “462′ in the center and on the obverse “M. Richold Guina.” with laurels above and below.
66 790 C697
Acquired November 2023
763 817 G793
Acquired December 2021
763 817 G793
Acquired December 2021
763 817 G793
Acquired December 2021
Printed in two columns with a woodcut at the head of each column, and playing cards surrounding text.
File 68 837 P453+
Acquired June 2021
The Coalition ministers are gathered around the table placed in the mouth of a cave. On the left sits Lord North wearing armor under his cloak, a goblet in his left hand. Opposite him on the right is Charles Fox, dressed as a centurion and sitting on a fox. He leans on the table keeping his right hand on three dice signed, “Madras,” “Bombay,” and “Bengal,” and clutching a dice box in his left. Behind him Admiral Keppel, the date of the battle of Ushant (1778) on his helmet, raises his goblet in a toast. Behind him Sheridan, with ass’s ears and “School for Scandal” written across his head cover, watches the Duke of Portland count out money to Lord Carlisle. On Portland’s shoulder leans Lord Cavendish in a centurion’s armor under his cloak. Between him and North sits Burke in a Jesuit’s outfit reading his own “Plan of oeconomy [sic].” Under the table lie the corpses of Lords Shelburne and Ashburton, ousted by the Coalition.
783.12.22.03.2+ Impression 2
Acquired December 2019
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.
Hogarth 768.03.25.06+ Box 210
Acquired December 2019
In a churchyard four young men, one of whom is a boot-black, play a game of hustle-cap on a tomb; a beadle raises his cane to strike them; in the foreground skulls and bones and an open grave; beyond, the congregation enters the church.
812.00.00.113
Acquired September 2019
Charles James Fox, with the feet and tail of a fox, his empty pockets turned out, and with cow horns protruding through his hat, stands on an E.O. (gaming) table placed on the North Pole. Quoting Satan’s speech from Paradise Lost, he looks to the upper right where the sun is depicted as Lord Shelburne. Refers to Fox’s gambling habit and his July 1782 resignation after Shelburne’s appointment as First Lord of the Treasury.
Printed on verso, an uncolored impression of: The V- Committee framing a report. [London] : Pubd. according to act of Parliament, Augt. 12th, 1782 by C. Atkinson, and sold in Mark Lane!!!
782.07.22.01.3+
Acquired February 2017
