Tag Archives: Lifting & carrying

A labourer in the good cause

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“Eldon stands with his shirt-sleeves rolled up, carrying a great stack of petitions under each arm. On his head is a porter’s knot made of a pair of green bags (emblem of ‘Old Bags’, see British Museum Satires No. 12883); on this rests a third pile of bulky parchments. Round his right leg is an unfastened garter inscribed ‘. . . d Expects Every Man will do’ [his duty]. He puffs; sweat streams down his forehead; he says: ‘Hard work this–got plenty more to bring down yet–.’ The petitions are inscribed ‘Petition’ [five times]; ‘against Concession’ [twice]; ‘Petition against’; ‘30.000 Inhabitants’; ‘Humbly Sheweth’; ‘Petition against Concession–‘ [twice] ‘3.00 Inhabitants’; ‘4000 of the . . .’; ‘signed by 130.000 Men Women & Children ; 60,000 Respectable Inhabitants’.”–British Museum online catalogue

  • Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  • Title: A labourer in the good cause [graphic] / [man with umbrella] Esqr.
  • Publication: [London] : Pub. by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket, [approximately March 1828]

Catalog Record

828.03.00.01+

Acquired June 2024

The slough of despond

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“Wardle, in back view in civilian dress, walks off with Mrs. Clarke seated on his right shoulder; a paper, ‘C. Wardle’, projects from his pocket. She looks back to point derisively down at the Duke of York who is falling into a watery swamp. She says: “There goes his —— Honor!!” He shakes his fist at the couple. Beside him are his cocked hat and a broken sword inscribed ‘from Holland’. Wardle walks uphill towards the temple of ‘Truth’; a (naked) figure holds out draperies. In the swamp is a board: ‘A Caution’.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: The slough of despond [graphic] / etchd. by I Spy I.
  • Publication: [London] : [publisher not identified], [ca. March 1809]

Catalog Record

809.03.00.06+

Acquired May 2021

 

The representation of Thomas Topham the strong man

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The representation of Thomas Topham the strong man. Detailed description below

“Portrait of Thomas Topham, taken on 28 May 1741; full length, standing slightly to right on high scaffold, preparing to lift three hogsheads full of water in Bath Street, London, in honour of Admiral Vernon’s attack to capture Cartagena; after a drawing by Leigh.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Toms, W. H. (William Henry), approximately 1700-1765, printmaker.
  • Title: The representation of Thomas Topham the strong man [graphic] : who lifted three hogsheads of water, weighing 1836 £, the 28th of May 1741, in honour to Admiral Vernon : before thousands of people, in Bath-Street, Cold-Bath-Fields / C. Leigh delin. 1741.
  • Publication: [London] : Publish’d according to act of Parliament, June 29, 1741, and sold by W.H. Toms, engraver, in Union Court, Holbourn, [29 June 1741]

Catalog Record 

741.06.29.01+

Acquired November 2018