A labourer in the good cause

description below

“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: 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

description below

“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

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