The Suffolk wonder

illustration of a short, bald man with printed text below

A broadside on Christopher Bullock, a tiny but fat watch and clock-maker in Suffolk; with a woodcut showing a portrait of Bullock, holding a wig in his left hand, mopping his brow with the other; with letterpress title and text, including information on other people of Suffolk including another dwarf Miss B-t-h-c-r, and a table listing market days and distances from London of towns on the road to Yarmouth, and with one vertical segment of type ornaments. See British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: The Suffolk wonder: or, The pleasant, facetious, and merry dwarf of Bottesdale.
  • Publication: [Ipswich?] : [publisher not identified], [not before 1755]

Catalog Record

755.00.00.27

Acquired August 2023

Britons! Look on these pictures

printed text

A broadside illustrated with engraved head-and-shoulders portraits of Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold at top of sheet followed by 29 lines of letterpress text mourning the death of the Charlotte on November 6th, 1817.

  • Title: Britons! Look on these pictures, and while you deplore the untimely loss of the one, and worthily sympathise in the acute grief of the other of the illustrious originals, endeavour to imitate the public and domestic virtues which have so eminently distinguished both. …
  • Publication: [London?] : [published not identified], [1817]

Catalog Record

File 56 C47 817B

Acquired July 2023

Royal love letters

description below

Heading to a broadside printed in two columns. Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, is dressed in an officer’s uniform and seated at a writing desk next to a window. He turns to gaze at a portrait on the wall of his mistress, Mary Anne Clark. Printed beneath the satirical illustration are a love poem and a quoted extract from a love letter, taken from the work ‘The Authentic and Impartial Life of Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke’ that was published after the Duke severed ties with her in 1809.

 

  • Title: Royal love letters [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Published by M.C. Springsguth, [approximately 1809]

Catalog Record

809.00.00.65+

Acquired November 2022

The cat’s-paw!

description below

A satire of William IV’s involvement in the debate leading up to the Reform Act of 1832: A cat with the face of William IV is being persuaded to pull a hot chestnut from a blazing fire by a bewigged monkey (Lord Chancellor Henry Brougham). The fire is labelled with words such as ‘rights’, ‘reform’, and ‘popularity’. A portrait of Whig Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, hangs above the fireplace.

 

  • Title: The cat’s-paw! [graphic] / E. Brookes delt.
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. by Marianne Humphreys, St. James’s Stt., [approximately 1832]

Catalog Record

832.00.00.52

Acquired November 2022

Sir Jeffery Dunstan, Mayor of Garrat

front and back of metal coin

Obverse: In center, full-length portrait of Jeffery Dunstan facing right; legend inscription with Dunstan’s name and title as Mayor of Garrat. Reverse: In center, six lines of inscription with T. Hall’s address and date, the penulitimate line is much larger letters than the others and the legend inscription advertising Hall’s taxidermy services.

  • Title: Sir Jeffery Dunstan, Mayor of Garrat [realia].
  • Publication: [London] : [Thomas Hall], [1795]

Catalog Record

LWL Min. 151

Acquired March 2022

York commission warehouse

description below

“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

Halfpenny of Lackington Allen & Co

“A trade token issued by the famed bookseller James Lackington (1746-1815), the same year he opened the Temple of the Muses, ‘one of the wonders of London’ (Oxford DNB); with reputedly a million books on display, it was at the time the biggest bookshop in the world. Tokens such as these were issued in many places in England in the late eighteenth century, when the government failed to mint enough copper coinage for the conduct of business. According to Oxford DNB, Lackington issued thousands of such tokens, which were only valid at his shop. All were struck by Lutwyche of Birmingham.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Creator: Lackington, Allen and Co.
  • Title: Halfpenny of Lackington Allen & Co. [realia] : cheapest booksellers in the world.
  • Publication: [London] : [Lackington, Allen and Co], 1794.
  • Manufacture: [Birmingham, England] : [Lutwyche], [1794]

Catalog Record

LWL Min. 147

Acquired October 2019

A faithful representation of the trial ….

“A realistic view of the House receding in perspective to the Throne, above which is inset an oval bust portrait of Bartolomo Bergami, wearing a cluster of five decorations, see British Museum Satires no. 13810. Some figures and objects have numbers referring to notes in the lower margin. Counsel are in a line across the foreground on each side of the centre figures, who are Gurney the short-hand writer and Majocchi facing the interpreter. The Queen is inconspicuously seated behind Brougham, next a smaller lady who must be the tall Lady Anne Hamilton. Eldon is at the Table in front of the Woolsack. On the Table is 13 Green Bag [see British Museum Satires no. 13735].”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • TitleA faithful representation of the trial of Her Most Gracious Majesty Caroline Queen of England, in the House of Lords, 1820 [graphic].
  • Publication[London] : [publisher not identified], [ca. November 1820]

Catalog Record

Drawer 820.11.00.01

Acquired April 2017

The little princess and Gulliver

lwlpr32587 (785x1024)

“Princess Charlotte (three-quarter length) stands at a table looking into a large (chinoiserie) punch-bowl (right) in which Bonaparte frantically swims towards her, among agitated waves, his large hat floating in the water. The Princess, very mature for her seven years, wears a cap with a jewelled fillet inscribed ‘Ich Di[en]’ in which are three feathers. Round her neck on a rope of pearls hangs an oval miniature of the Prince of Wales. She holds her left fist over the bowl, saying, “There you impertinent boasting swaggering Pigmy, – take that, – You attempt to take my Grandpap’s Crown indeed, and plunder all his Subjects, Fillet you know that the Spirit and Indignation of every Girl in the Kingdom is roused at your Insolence.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • PrintmakerWilliams, C. (Charles), active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • TitleThe little princess and Gulliver [graphic].
  • Published[London : Pubd Octobr 21st 1803 by S.W.Fores 50 Piccadilly, 21 October 1803]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

803.10.21.01

Acquired June 2015