A riding-house

description belowA view of the interior of a riding-school: A number of men riding round in a circle; those in the foreground ride from right to left, those in the background from left to right. The riding-master stands in the centre, pointing with hand and cane, and grinning at a short fat man in a clerical wig who is running across the room, alarmed at the horses. A short obese man in back-view on the extreme right, who is about to mount his horse has been identified as Captain Grose. Next him is a man with a grotesque impression of alarm riding a plunging horse. Among the riders are two with clerical wigs. One horse is galloping, out of control, the others are quietly ambling round. Two sides of a high rectangular room or hall are visible; in each wall are two high arch-topped windows.

  • Printmaker: Bretherton, James, approximately 1730-1806, printmaker.
  • Title: A riding-house [graphic] / Mr. Bunbury del. ; Js. Bretherton f.
  • Publication: [London] : Published by Js. Bretherton, 15 Feby. 1780.

Catalog Record

780.02.15.03++

Acquired November 2019

Series of very spirited etchings of gigs and their drivers

  • Creator: Alken, Henry Thomas, 1784-1851.
  • Title: Series of very spirited etchings of gigs and their drivers / by Alken.
  • Published:[ London] : [publisher not identified], [182-]

Catalog Record 

Quarto 724 820Al

Acquired April 2019

A perspective view and section of an engine propos’d to be built

A perspective view and section of an engine propos'd to be built . Detailed description below

“This engraving represents a circular building, with conical roof of tiles, shown in two sections, and partly in perspective. Within the building is a large wheel turned by a horse and giving motion to a considerable number of spindles, to which are attached disks; on each of the disks are several razors, which are thus set in action on the faces of the men who apply their cheeks to openings in the inner wall of the building. Exterior to this inner wall is a gallery where stand the men who are thus expeditiously shaved; their hats hang on pegs, each over the hole to which the owner has applied himself. In the gallery several men are finishing or preparing for their toilettes. The operation of dressing a wig is shown below the wheel, on our right, where many combs are placed on a drum which revolves like a water-wheel before a man’s wig, placed on a block near it.”–British Museum catalogue, description of an earlier state.

  • Printmaker: Booth, Thomas, active 1743-1746, printmaker.
  • Title: A perspective view and section of an engine propos’d to be built by subscription, which will shave sixty men in a minute, also oyl comb and powder their wigs [graphic] / Booth sculp.
  • Publication: [London] : Publish’d according to act of Parliament Novr. [the] 2, 1749, and sold by J. Dubois at [the] Golden Head [the] corner of Burleigh Street near Exeter Chanc[…], [2 November 1749]

Catalog Record 

749.11.29.01+

Acquired November 2018

Over weight, or, The sinking fund, or, The downfall of faro

“Lady Buckinghamshire, enormously fat, is seated in profile to the right in an open chariot which sinks through a rectangular aperture in front of the Weigh-House, its weight being too great for the apparatus for weighing wagons. She throws up her arms and one leg, dropping her whip and reins. The hind legs of the plunging horses are in the pit; they snort wildly; the chariot and horses resemble those of Phaeton burlesqued. On the chariot is an oval escutcheon with four quarterings (cards, dice, wine-bottle, and glass) and the letter ‘B’. On the right (behind) are two street-lamps on tall pyramidal posts.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • PrintmakerNewton, Richard, 1777-1798, printmaker, artist.
  • TitleOver weight, or, The sinking fund, or, The downfall of faro [graphic] / Rd. Newton del. et fecit.
  • PublicationLondon : Pubd. by S.W. Fores, corner of Sackville Street, March 14, 1797.

Catalog Record and Digital Collection

797.03.14.01+

Acquired November 2016