Mary Tofts, of Godalmin

description below

Portrait, three-quarter length, sitting facing front, right elbow resting on a table, left hand holding a rabbit in her lap, wearing plain clothes, an apron, knotted scarf around her neck and small white cap, looking away to left; after Laguerre.

  • Title: Mary Tofts, of Godalmin [graphic] : the pretended rabbit breeder.
  • Publication: [London] : Published Jany. 1st, 1810, by Wm. Richardson Junr., 31 Strand, [1 January 1810]

Catalog Record

810.01.01.01

Acquired January 2021

A wooden substitute, or, Any port in a storm

A wooden substitute, or, Any port in a storm. Detailed description below

“A companion plate to British Museum Satires no. 14103. Alderman Wood takes the Queen’s left arm, staring down at her and grinning. He wears a top-hat on the back of his head, black tail-coat with trousers; his left hand is thrust under the buttons of his double-breasted coat. He wears an order and a star on which the Queen’s head is depicted (see British Museum Satires no. 13810). From her neck hang twin miniatures: Bergami and Wood. Her dress is a modified version of that in British Museum Satires no. 14103: between open over-dress and Turkish trousers is a frilled petticoat reaching well below the knee; her feathered hat resembles that worn at her ‘trial’. They stand in a wooded landscape with goats and rabbits in the middle distance. In the background, on the edge of a lake, is the tiny figure of Bergami, both arms raised.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Lane, Theodore, 1800-1828, printmaker.
  • Title: A wooden substitute, or, Any port in a storm [graphic].
  • Publication: London : Pubd. by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s St., Jany. 19, 1821.

Catalog Record 

821.01.19.01 Impression 2

Acquired March 2019

 

The doctors in labour

Print with twelve panels relating to the affair of Mary Toft

Print with twelve panels relating to the affair of Mary Toft, “the rabbit breeder”: from top left, she is held aloft by two men and a Harlequin or Merry Andrew, she has a rabbit in either hand; she pursues a rabbit while working in a field; she dreams of being impregnated by rabbit, Cupid is shown on a cloud beside her bed holding a rabbit in either hand; she is seated in a chair attended by two women while the two men and Harlequin discuss the monstrous birth; Harlequin demonstrates that he can express milk from her breast; Harlequin feels “the rabbets leapin in her belly” while two men look on; she sits on the edge of a bed and Harlequin kneels to seize a rabbit that emerges from her skirts while a doctor raises his hands in surprise, wishing to anatomize the animal; Harlequin stands behind a table holding a balance in which he weighs dung removed from the rabbit explaining to two men that this will allow him to judge whether the animal had “breath’d in air”; doctors and midwives discuss the phenomenon around a table and Harlequin enters claiming that the birth must be “praeternatural”; a crowd of gentlemen are welcomed to the bagnio in Leicester Square where Toft is housed; two men spy from the door to Toft’s room as another hands her a dead rabbit; Toft, weeping, is led away to Bridewell by two constables while Harlequin “sits upon Repenting stool, Cursing his fate in being made a Fool. See British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: The doctors in labour, or, A new whim wham from Guildford [graphic] : being a representation of [the] frauds by which [the] Godliman woman, carried on her pretended rabbit breeding; also of [the] simplicity of our doctors, by which they assisted to carry on that imposture discover’d their own skill, & contributed to [the] Mirth, of His Majesties liege subjects.
  • Published: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [1726]

Catalog Record 

726.00.00.26+

Acquired September 2018

A wooden substitute, or, Any port in a storm

“A companion plate to British Museum Satires no. 14103. Alderman Wood takes the Queen’s left arm, staring down at her and grinning. He wears a top-hat on the back of his head, black tail-coat with trousers; his left hand is thrust under the buttons of his double-breasted coat. He wears an order and a star on which the Queen’s head is depicted (see British Museum Satires no. 13810). From her neck hang twin miniatures: Bergami and Wood. Her dress is a modified version of that in British Museum Satires no. 14103: between open over-dress and Turkish trousers is a frilled petticoat reaching well below the knee; her feathered hat resembles that worn at her ‘trial’. They stand in a wooded landscape with goats and rabbits in the middle distance. In the background, on the edge of a lake, is the tiny figure of Bergami, both arms raised.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • PrintmakerLane, Theodore, 1800-1828, printmaker.
  • TitleA wooden substitute, or, Any port in a storm [graphic].
  • PublicationLondon : Pubd. by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s St., Jany. 19, 1821.

Catalog Record

821.01.19.01

Acquired March 2017