The ballad singers

description below

A poor family in rags sing on a city streets to earn money. The man, a veteran with a peg leg, plays the violin; his uniform is patched up. The boy wears no shoes and a coat too big for him; he holds out a hat to collect the money. The woman wears a ragged dress and a patched cloak covering a baby on her back; she carries a basket with loaded with the broadsides for sale.

  • Printmaker: Sears, Robert, active 1800- printmaker.
  • Title: The ballad singers [graphic] / Mercer del. ; Sears sculp.
  • Publication: [London] : Published by T. Smyth & sold by A. Parsey, Burlington Arcade, [1828?]

Catalog Record

828.00.00.117

Acquired September 2023

Case of frightful destitution

description below

“Eldon as a street-beggar kneels on both knees on straw placed on paving-stones, wearing a cap resembling those worn by butchers and the rags of a Chancellor’s gown over tattered breeches. He supports himself by a staff, and holds out his short powdered wig. Beside him (left) lies an empty and dilapidated bag inscribed The Old Bagg [cf. British Museum Satires No. 12883]. He looks down with a gloomy scowl, and from his closed lips rise the words: Pity the sorrows of a poor old man [cf. British Museum Satires Nos. 13991, 16236]–vide beggars petition, Tricked out of Work by a Soldier. Round his neck is tied a placard reaching below the waist, and inscribed: Pity a poor Old Man out of Place, at the age of 78 [76], and though extremely anxious, for employment, disappointed in, all his expectations of procuring the Same. His pension is only 4.000 P A [cf. British Museum Satires No. 10714] and not a Dinner has been dressed in his house within the memory of man! He has a wife to support, and a Son to provide for, who holds only Eight Appointments! Beside him an emaciated dog stands on its hindlegs holding a begging-dish, with a piteous expression.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  • Title: Case of frightful destitution [graphic] : the fatal effects of getting out of chancery!!! / [man with an umbrella] Esq. del.
  • Publication: [London] : Pub. by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket, London, [approximately January 1828]

Catalog Record

828.01.00.06+

Acquired May 2023

A free born Englishman!!!

description below

A man in ragged clothes stands facing right, hunched forward under the weight of a basket of ‘Rents’ and ‘Taxes’ strapped to his back. His legs are shackled, his mouth is closed by a padlock, and his hands are tied behind him. Image enclosed within a circle.

  • Printmaker: Spence, William, -1797, printmaker.
  • Title: free born Englishman!!! [graphic] : The glory of civilized life & the envy of Indian nations! / W. Spence 1796.
  • Publication: [London] : Publishd. by T. Spence, Turn Stile, Holborn, [1796]

Catalog Record

796.00.00.61

Acquired April 2023

Does the harp of Rosa slumber

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

The effects of youthful extravagance & idleness

description below

“Poverty-stricken family in bare, attic interior; man seated at left beside table, skinny dog beside him, looking away from woman, standing in centre mending garment, watched by boy lying on floor and resting on stool at right, looking up from his reading; young woman sitting dejectedly with bellows beside fireplace, at right.”–British Museum online catalogue, description of another print engraved after the same painting.

  • Printmaker: Darcis, Louis, -1801, printmaker.
  • Title: The effects of youthful extravagance & idleness [graphic] / G. Morland pinxt. ; Darcis sculpt.
  • Publication: London : [publisher not identified], publishd. March 25, 1800.

Catalog Record

Drawer 800.03.25.08

Acquired April 2023

The distrest poet

description below

A poet sits at a table, pen in hand, posed to write on the sheet of paper before him. On the floor is a discarded piece of paper. His hat and coat hang from a peg on the wall beside the chimney above which is a shelf of books and a picture of a Greek temple. The only other furnishings in the room are a broken chair, a folding bed tilted up against the wall, and a chamber pot.

 

  • Title: The distrest poet [graphic].
  • Publication: [Alnwick] : Printed and published by W. Davison, Alnwick, [between 1812 and 1817]

Catalog Record

812.00.00.92 Impression 2

Acquired August 2022

Hospitality kicking avarice out of doors

Hospitality kicking avarice out of doors. Detailed description below.

A caricature of the new Lord Mayor of London: Harvey Combe stands centered in a hall, surrounded by a desperate looking group of people both rich and poor, who kneel and beg. A skeletal man (butcher?) holds a knife in one hand and a scroll in the other inscribed with a large order for meat: “12 haundres venison, 6 necks do., 8 turtles, 20 brace partridges, 20 pheasants, 20 brace woodcocks, 16 sirloins beef”. In the foreground lies another sheet which reads “Tripe Soup. Liver & Crow. Fried Tripe. Bill of Fare for 8 Novr.” The outgoing Lord Mayor, Sir Richard Glyn, who was notoriously spendthrift during his period in office, is seen being kicked out of the Mansion House holding large money bag. The two cats on the left and the dog following the butcher are also thin from malnutrition. Two large spiders have spun large webs below the archway on the left below are two cupids holding a heart molded above the archway.

  • Title: Hospitality kicking avarice out of doors, or, New tenants at a mansion house [graphic].
  • Distribution: [London] : Sold by all the printsellers in London, Novr. 9, 1799.

Catalog Record

799.11.09.02++

Acquired November 2018

Hospitality kicking avarice out of doors

Hospitality kicking avarice out of doors. Detailed description below.

A caricature of the new Lord Mayor of London: Harvey Combe stands centerd in the a hall, surrounded by a desperate looking group of people both rich and poor, who kneel and beg. A skeletal man (buthcher?) holds a knife in one hand and a scroll in the other enscribed with a large order for meat: “12 haundres vension, 6 necks do., 8 turtles, 20 brace partridges, 20 pheasants, 20 brace woodcocks, 16 sirloins beef bacon(?) &””. In the foreground lies another sheet which readss “Tripe Soup. Liver & Crow. Fried Tripe. Bill of Fare for 8 Novr.” The outgoing Lord Mayor, Sir Richard Glyn, who was notoriously spendthrift during his period in office, is seen being kicked out of the Mansion House holding large money bag with the word “Saving” written on it. The two cats on the left and the dog following the butcher are also thin from malnorishment. Two large spiders have spun large webs below the archway on the left below a two cupids holding a heart molded above the archway.

  • Artist: Nixon, John, -1818, artist.
  • Title: Hospitality kicking avarice out of doors, or, New tenants at a mansion house [art original] / J.N. 1799.
  • Production: [England], [1799]

Catalog Record

Drawings N736 no. 8 Box D305

Acquired November 2018

Interior of an English workhouse* under the new Poor Law Act

Emaciated and shaven-headed paupers treated as slaves by cruel overseers: adults beating hemp and children picking rope in the foreground, others in the background manacled to the wall or hanging from the ceiling, tied up by their feet and hands; to right, a manager with a scourge seizing an elderly man, and a man pulling a cart, which he says is full of dead infants to be sold to surgeons; to left, a manager turning away the starving poor who beg to be let in.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • PrintmakerGrant, C. J. (Charles Jameson), active 1830-1852, printmaker.
  • TitleInterior of an English workhouse* under the new Poor Law Act [graphic].
  • Publication[London] : Printed and published by G. Drake, 12, Houghton-Street, Clare-Market, [ca. 1833]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

Folio 75 G750 833 Copy 2 (Oversize)

Acquired December 2016

The drunkard’s progress

lwlpr33541 (1024x819)

A city scene with a line of poor men, women, and children lined up from a money lender’s shop to the “Temple of Juniper: Best gin”. In the background crowds stand at the doorways of the workhouse (right) and the county gaol (left).

  • PrintmakerGrant, C. J. (Charles Jameson), active 1830-1852.
  • TitleThe drunkard’s progress [graphic] : from the pawnbroker’s to the gin shop from thence to the workhouse thence to the goal & ultimately to the scaffold.
  • Publication[London] : [J. Kendrick], January 1st, 1834.

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

834.01.01.01

Acquired January 2016