Tag Archives: Lewis Walpole Library March 2020

York commission warehouse

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“Mrs. Clarke stands before a large doorway inscribed Clark and Company. She wears a white short-sleeved dress with plumed cocked hat, gorget, and military sash, sword-belt and scabbard. The sword she holds over her head, saying, Now Gentlemen you had better be quick I have a few bargains to dispose of. as the partnership is disolving. She holds out a paper: List of Prices at Clark and C°’s Warehouse–Majority–£900. Company –7oo. Lieutenancy 400. Through the doorway behind her are seen great stacks of papers in her ‘warehouse’. These are labelled: Captains Commissions 500 each, Half-pay Commissions 200 each, Lieutenant, Colonel, Major, Cornet. On the wall is a notice: NB a sum wanted by way o Loan, terms to be seen within. On the right stands a man playing a fiddle, and saying with a sly smile, If you want de commission, you must give me de Note den I go play de Fiddle to de white petticoat. From his coat-pockets hang papers: Pay Sigr Cor[ri] for [word illegible] 200; and a piece of music: The Petticoat [see British Museum Satires No. 11220]. Beside him lies a large Note Book. Above his head hangs upside down a portrait: The Dukes Head; the upper part only of the Duke of York’s profile is visible, defaced by a black mark, the rest of the picture being cut off by the upper margin of the design. On the left two military bandsmen play a drum and fife. One asks: What tune shall we play now Jack the Duke of Yorks Marck [sic]? Answer: No No lets play she’s off with another.”–British Museum online catalogue.

 

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: York commission warehouse [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. February 1809 by Walker, No. 7 Cornhill, [February 1809]

Catalog Record

809.02.00.02+

Acquired March 2020

The old bachelor’s thermometer

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The image at top shows an old man sitting in an armchair on the right, his gouty foot resting on a footstool, a crutch seen leaning against a stool beside him. He looks up at a younger woman on the left, who wears a bonnet and apron and is looking down and away from him. Draperies and a framed picture of Cupid shooting an arrow decorate the wall behind them. The text below, in two columns with an age listed at the beginning of each line, tells the humorous tale of the consequences of a man putting off marriage for prideful reasons from age “16 – incipient palpitations towards the young ladies”, through the ages of “29 – rails against the fair sex”, “37 – indulge in every kind of dissipation”, and “48 – thinks living alone quite irksome …”. Eventually, he resolves to have a prudent young woman as housekeeper and companion, gradually feeling some attachment to her and becoming completely under her influence. At age 60, as he begins to feel ill, and “grows rapidly worse, has his will made in her favour, and makes an exit.”

  • Title: The old bachelor’s thermometer. The old maid’s thermometer [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Published by S. and J. Fuller, 34, Rathbone-Place, [between 1809 and 1839]
  • Manufacture: [London] : Printed by L. Harrison, 373, Strand.

Catalog Record

809.00.00.64

Acquired March 2020

Tirania

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Ferdinand VII, seated on a throne on a low platform inscribed “TIRANIA”, is flanked by two advisers, the Devil on the left and a friar on the right. At the friar’s feet, in the foreground, a demon burns newspapers with a firebrand. Tortures of the Inquisition are seen in the background.

  • Title: Tirania [graphic].
  • Publication: [London?] : Washington, pubd. Novr. 1818.

Catalog Record

818.11.00.01+

Acquired March 2020

Christianity defended

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title page

  • Author: Philalethes, Member of the Church of England, author.
  • Title: Christianity defended : in a letter to the Right Honourable Simon Ld. Lovat, (in the Tower for high treason) on the importance of repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, in contradistinction to the execrable heresy of Arianism. Occasion’d by Mr. F——-‘s Account of the behaviour of the late Earl of Kilmarnock / by a member of the Church of England.
  • Publication: London : Sold by M. Cooper; J. Walter, P. and A. Brown, in Bristol : W. Frederick, J. Leake, Bath; and J. Drew, Exon, MDCCXLVI [1746]

Catalog Record

53 L896 746

Acquired March 2020

French volunteers marching to the conquest of Great Britain

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“A mounted officer with drawn sabre heads a procession of ‘Volunteers’ linked by a chain to his horse and to each other. The horse is a well-bred animal with handsome trappings, but the rider is lean and has torn breeches. He is followed by a file of three whose necks are attached to the horse and whose hands or arms are pinioned. All are miserable wretches, barelegged and ragged; the last, less abject, has sabots and takes snuff. He is chained to the neck of a donkey on whose back is a pannier containing three despairing conscripts. To the animal’s tail is tied a low truck on which a moribund shackled man lies on his back, his knees drawn up. To the truck is chained, in a stooping position, a man whose hands are tied behind his back, his nails being long talons. Birds, scenting carrion, fly towards the procession. Below the design: ‘Dedicated (by an Eye Witness) to the Volunteers of Great Britain’.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Gillray, James, 1756-1815, printmaker.
  • Title: French volunteers marching to the conquest of Great Britain [graphic] / C.L.S.
  • Publication: London : Pubd. Octr. 25th, 1803, by H. Humphrey, 27 St. Jamess [sic] Street, [25 October 1803]

Catalog Record

803.10.25.01++

Acquired March 2020