818.11.14.01+
Acquired February 2024
Four caricatures of men eating soup each type identified below the image: a rich man with rhinophyma eats “Turtle Soup”; a tall, thin soldier with a queue hairstyle eats “Soup Maigre”; a dustman eats “Pea Soup”; and a thin man in an upholstered armchair and wearing a cap and slippers eats “Mutton Broth.”
826.00.00.93
Acquired September 2023
“A Dutch broadside satirising the arrival of William III in England and the overthrow of James II and his Roman Catholic policies; with an engraving showing in the foreground on the right William (7) in armour mounted on the Dutch lion (1), attacking the many-headed Babylonian dragon (2) with his lance. Above William flies the angel of Providence (3). To left, priests and Catholic officials (4) flee, some riding on goats, wolves and asses. The dragon carries the infant Prince of Wales holding a windmill (5) held by Father Petre (6). The lion rides over fallen monks and Jesuits (8) and two decapitated heads of the dragon. In the centre background William is received by English notables (9). To left, James (10) departs in a small boat from a shore with a ruined church; to right; he is received by Louis XIV (11), together with Mary of Modena and the infant Prince of Wales. With engraved title, false publication line “Gisling Geneve exc.”, and numbering 1-10, and with letterpress verses, including legend, in two columns.”–British Museum online catalogue.
688.00.00.01+
Acquired February 2024
Two asses on a bare patch of ground, with the first line of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ below. The play begins with three witches in a storm deciding when to meet next (‘When the hurlyburly’s done, / When the battle’s lost and won’). That there are only two asses in this parody presumably means that the dedicatee of the print, whose name is withheld, is the third.
830.00.00.169
Acquired September 2023
Print showing George IV being carried in a sedan chair by two men wearing judicial wigs and robes, one carries a sceptor; on the top of the chair sits Queen Caroline holding a noise maker, she tells the porters to “Keep joging, I’le be your Pilot, don’t fear his Wakeing – I have Composed his Highness, I warrant you.” George IV pours out the contents of a bottle labeled “opium” and on the ground next to the chair is a broken bottle also labeled “opium.”
“Political satire: the Prince Regent carried in a chair by two judges, with Mrs Fitzherbert on the roof with two babies, followed by the cabinet.”–British Museum online catalogue.
824.04.24.01+
Acquired September 2023
“Brougham stands in profile to the left, selling brooms; he holds up one, two are under his left arm. He wears a barrister’s wig and bands, with a small conical cap tied under the chin, a tight-fitting bodice, and a full petticoat to the knee, showing flat feet and large and ill-formed legs in black stockings. The dress is that of the German and Flemish girls who sold brooms in the London streets …”–British Museum online catalogue.
825.05.13.01
Acquired November 2023
A cook berating a lazy servant.
820.00.00.93+
Acquired September 2023
“The interior of a dairy: George III (left), in shirt-sleeves, is churning; the Queen, dressed as a farmer’s wife, sits in the window counting the coins which the Princess Royal pours on to the table. The Princess has a basket on her arm and is dressed like a country-girl. The Queen says, “Bless me, Child, you have made a very bad market! Good Heavens is it possible the people can be so unreasonable these plentiful times to expect six eggs for a groat! You shall tramp to London next market day.” The King adds, “A very bad market girl, indeed, a very bad market girl – Limy shall go next” (cf. British Museum Satires No. 6947). Behind the King are shelves with bowls of cream, a furtive cat drinks from one of them. Above them, three milk-scores are chalked on the wall, headed, ‘Cartwheel’s score’, ‘The Widow Waggonrut’, and ‘Mrs Towser’. On the ground (left) is a pile of cheeses. Outside the wide doorway (right) Pitt, elegantly dressed, is milking a cow with a fastidious air; he sings: “I made war with Kate, a buxom Northern Lass: But such my cruel fate – ” Thurlow, wearing a smock, stands with his back to Pitt, cracking a whip; he says, “She bid you kiss her A——! Damn the Whip I’ll never learn the right smack of a Carter.””–British Museum online catalogue.
791.08.09.01+
Acquired September 2023
“A man in ragged but quasi-fashionable dress rides (right to left) an ass through a river which flows past a steep mountain. The animal jibs, with ears set back; the rider raises a whip in each hand. He wears, and uses, three pairs of spurs, and attached to his shoulders and to the ass is a monstrous pile of bladders inscribed respectively ‘Repartee’, ‘Nonsensical Verses’, ‘Catastrophe’, ‘Sentiment’, ‘Blasphemies’, ‘Puns’, ‘Duels’, ‘Double Entendres’, ‘Metaphors’, ‘Ghosts’, ‘Melting Speeches’, ‘Squibs’, ‘Dialogue’, ‘Daggers Poisons’.”–British Museum online catalogue, description of the print engraved after this drawing.
A rough pencil sketch of the same design but lacking much of the detail on the verso.
Drawings G867 no. 1 Box D205
Acquired September 2023
“The Lord Mayor sits (right) in profile to the left in a chair of state facing a city officer in a long gown holding a wand who leads in a file of five amused ‘cits’, three men and two women. The officer says: “Here are a number of People brought before your Honor, by your Honor’s Order, for not keeping the pavement clean before their Houses in Frosty Weather – according to the Act of Parliament for that purpose; but the worst of all is – here is a Worthy Alderman, lays information, that the pavement before your Honor’s Door is as much neglected as any of the rest – and moreover says that he himself had a fall there in the late Frost, which shook him so much, that he has been unable to digest Turtle or Venison ever since – A material injury to one of the Body Corporate.” The alderman, who heads the file, clasps an enormous paunch. The Mayor answers, proffering a coin: “Well, Well, if that is the case, take my five Shillings, and say no more about the Business.” The Mayor wears spectacles and a chain of office; he has not the plebeian appearance of the alderman and his companions. (Charles Price was Lord Mayor 1802-3.)”–British Museum online catalogue.
803.00.00.53+
Acquired February 2024