Tag Archives: Lewis Walpole Library April 2023

Scarcity in India

Posted on by
Reply

description below

“Two sailors are bargaining with a scantily clad Indian girl with a basket of fruit. Although pineapples were luxury goods at this time, the mirror, and in particular the watch offered by the seaman on the left represent a disproportionately high price for the fruit. The girl’s hairstyle resembles a pineapple reinforcing the point that she is the object of their attention rather than her wares. The two men are dressed in their shore-going clothes with buckled shoes and silk stockings. They wear baggy cotton trousers and short jackets. The sleeve of the left-hand sailor has a mariner’s cuff outlined in white piping and his wool jacket has metal buttons, which are probably made of brass. He wears a straw hat and his hair is done in a pigtail or queue. Both men have large silk neckerchiefs probably originating in India. Sailor’s dress was much the same in the merchant service and the navy. There was no uniform for the lower ranks at this time.”–Collections online, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

  • Printmaker: Knight, Charles, 1743-1827?, printmaker.
  • Title: Scarcity in India [graphic] / painted by H. Singleton ; engraved by C. Knight.
  • Publication: [London] : Published Jan. 1st, 1794, by C. Knight at Wm. Bonds, No. 98 Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place, London, [1 January 1794]

Catalog Record

794.01.01.11++

Acquired April 2023

The Holy Alliance unmasked

Posted on by
Reply

description below

Satire depicting the The Quintuple Alliance (Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Napoleon Bonaparte, Francis I, Emperor of Austria, Louis Antoine de Bourbon, duc d’Angoulême and the Duke of Wellington) debating the question of the Spanish succession and French intervention in Spain at the 1822 Congress of Verona. Losers in the negotiation are depicted as tiny doll-like figures trampled under the table. Masks are scattered on the floor and animal symbolism includes a bear, a monkey and a pair of bulldogs.

  • Printmaker: Purcell, E. (Edward), printmaker.
  • Title: The Holy Alliance unmasked [graphic] / E. Purcell.
  • Publication: [London] : Published Feb. 1823 by J. Dickinson, 114 New Bond St., [February 1823]

Catalog Record

823.02.00.01+

Acquired April 2023

 

Perspective view of the inside of the Royal Exchange in London

Posted on by
Reply

description below

“Interior of the Royal Exchange; interior of the great quadrangle from the north-east corner of the inner cloister, or walk, with the clock tower on the left, and the court filled with merchants of various nations.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Bartolozzi, Francesco, 1727-1815, printmaker.
  • Title: To the Right Honorable William Pitt, first Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, Principal Secretary of State, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, this accurate perspective view of the inside of the Royal Exchange in London is (by permission) humbly dedicated by his most grateful, obedient, and most obliged humble servant, J. Chapman [graphic] / the delineation by Mr. Chapman, the figures by Lutherburgh, the graving of the plates by Bartolozzi.
  • Publication: [London] : [John Chapman], [1788]

Catalog Record

788.00.00.44++

Acquired April 2023

Le colera de Napoleon

Posted on by
Reply

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

After the invasion

Posted on by
Reply

description below

“Three volunteers or militiamen, three-quarter length figures, exult at the head of Bonaparte which one of them (right) holds up on a pitchfork, saying, “Here he is Exalted my Lads 24 Hours after Landing.” The head is in profile to the left, the sharp well-cut features contrast with those of the chubby yokels. The centre figure, holding out his hat, says, turning to the left: “Why Harkee, d’ye zee, I never liked Soldiering afore, but some how or other when I though [sic] of our Sal the bearns, the poor pigs, the Cows and the Geese, why I could have killed the whole Army my own Self.” He wears a smock with the crossed straps of a cartouche-box. The third man (left) in regimentals, but round-shouldered and unsoldierly, says: “Dang my Buttons if that beant the Head of that Rogue Boney – I told our Squire this Morning, what do you think say’s I the Lads of our Village can’t cut up a Regiment of them French Mounsheers, and as soon as the Lasses had given us a Kiss for good luck I could have sworn we should do it and so we have.” All three have hats turned up with favours and oak-twigs, the favours being inscribed respectively (left to right): ‘Hearts of Oak’; ‘Britons never will be Slaves’, and ‘We’ll fight and We’ll Conquer again and again’. In the spaces between these foreground figures is seen a distant encounter between English horse and foot and French invaders, who are being driven into the sea, on which are flat-bottomed boats, all on a very small scale. Two women search French corpses; one says: “why this is poor finding I have emtied the pocketts of a score and only found one head of garlic 9 onions & a parcel of pill Boxes.” Cf. British Museum Satires No. 8145.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: After the invasion [graphic] : the levée en masse, or, Britons strike home.
  • Publication: [London] : Pub. Augt. 6th, 1803, by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly, [6 August 1803]

Catalog Record

802.08.06.01+

Acquired April 2023

Perspective view of the outside of the Royal Exchange in London

Posted on by
Reply

description below

“Exterior view of the Royal Exchange; looking down a busy street with carriages, carts and pedestrians, St Paul’s Cathedral in the distance to the left, the prominent entrance of the Royal Exchange with tower to right; in right foreground a man enters a shop with the sign “John’s Coffee”; after Loutherbourg and Chapman; published etched state.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Bartolozzi, Francesco, 1727-1815, printmaker.
  • Title: To the Right Honorable William Pitt, first Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, Principal Secretary of State, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, this accurate perspective view of the outside of the Royal Exchange in London is (by permission) humbly dedicated by his most grateful, obedient, and most obliged humble servant, J. Chapman [graphic] / the delineation by Mr. Chapman, the figures by Lutherburgh, the graving of the plates by Bartolozzi.
  • Publication: [London] : Published as the act directs August 12, 1788, & sold by Mr. Chapman at Mr. Christie’s, Pall Mall, [12 August 1788]

Catalog Record

788.08.12.01++

Acquired April 2023

The lovely Sacarissa dressing for the Pantheon

Posted on by
Reply

description below

“A stout, ugly, and elderly woman holds in her left hand a barber’s block, with a carved head in profile, on which is an elaborate pyramidal wig with ringlets. This she is covering with powder or flour from a dredger. Her hair is short and scanty; on her head is a very large black patch, two smaller ones are on her temple. She is dressed in undergarments, showing stays, and frilled petticoat over which is worn a pocket. Her dress, the bodice of which is almost cylindrical from its stiffening whalebone, is on a stool behind her. Her back is turned to the casement window (right) through which look two grinning old women, wearing frilled muslin caps. Over the window, and over the wall on its left, is a heavily festooned curtain. Sacarissa stands facing a low rectangular table (left), on which are a bottle and wine-glass, a candle (?) in a triangular shade, which is falling over, having apparently been knocked by the wig, patches, a comb, a paper, &c. Behind on the wall, in deep shadow, is a picture of a dome inscribed “The Pantheon”.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Dawe, Philip, printmaker.
  • Title: The lovely Sacarissa dressing for the Pantheon [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : [publisher not identified], publish’d Feby. 24, 1772.

Catalog Record

772.02.24.02+

Acquired April 2023

Mrs. Clarke’s patent extinguisher

Posted on by
Reply

description below

“Mrs. Clarke sits on Wardle’s right shoulder, to place over the head of the Duke of York a giant extinguisher which covers all but his legs and (military) coat-tails. At the apex of the extinguisher is a five-pointed star surrounded by the letters ‘T’ ‘R’ ‘U’ ‘T’ ‘H’. She says: “Beneath this Canopy’s oblivious shade Detected Y——hides his diminished head” On the cone are the inscriptions: ‘Multum in Papvo’ [sic] and: ‘Now Phoenix like, with renovated fire To noble deeds our Army shall aspire Whilst haughty Gaul shall emulate its praise And England round a Woman’s brow entwine the Bays.’ Wardle wears regimentals and sword and is tall and handsome; a letter ‘To Col Wardle’ projects from a pocket.”–British Museum online catalogue.

Catalog Record

809.03.00.09+

Acquired April 2023

Does the harp of Rosa slumber

Posted on by
Reply

description below

An old woman in patched-up clothes with her harp huddles in a doorway. The satire contrasts the life of a street singer with the sweet lyrics of the popular ballad by Thomas Moore.

  • Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  • Title: Does the harp of Rosa slumber [graphic] / [man with an umbrella] Esqr.
  • Publication: [London] : Pub. by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket, London, [approximately 1829]

Catalog Record

829.00.00.117+

Acquired April 2023