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.
- Printmaker: Elmes, William, active 1797-1820, printmaker.
- Title: Triumph of love and folly [graphic] / E-s [Elmes].
- Publication: London : Pubd. Aprl. 24, 1812, by Thos. Tegg, 111 Cheapside, [24 April 1812]
824.04.24.01+
Acquired September 2023
Copy in reverse of the first state of Plate 4 of Hogarth’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’ (Paulson 135): In this scene two baliffs, one with an arrest notice in his hand, have stopped Tom Rakewell’s sedan chair in St. James’s Street; Tom is presumably on his way to White’s gaming house which can be seen in the background. They are foiled in their attempt to arrest Tom for debt as Sarah Young, the young woman whom he had seduced and abandoned, offers the bailiffs her purse instead. Sarah is now a dealer in millinery as is suggested by the notions falling from her purse. In the right foreground a shoe-black apparently taking advantage of the situation to take hold of Tom’s elegant walking stick. Above them a careless lamplighter spills some oil on Tom’s head. To the left a Welshman, probably the creditor, honouring St David’s day (March 1st) with a leek in his hat, accompanied by his manicured dog, simply watches the scene. In the distance is the gate of St James’s Palace with a crowd of sedan-chairs approaching to celebrate the birthday of Queen Caroline.