High life below stairs

Posted on January 18, 2024 by km55

description below

“Interior of a kitchen showing servants at leisure: a stout woman dances with a black man in the centre accompanied by a man with a wooden leg who sits playing a violin on the left; watched by others on the right, a young woman standing on a chair and supported by a young man, while a seated man wearing a tricorn smiles and points at her and an elderly woman stands with her arms folded under her apron, a dog at her heels; two posters pasted on the wall behind, shelves, bellows and other kitchen implements in the background.”–British Museum online catalogue, description of a print of the same design.

Title: High life below stairs [graphic].
Publication: [London] : [Carington Bowles?], [approximately 1770]

Catalog Record

770.00.00.103+

Acquired November 2022

Mrs. Jordan in the character of the Country Girl

Posted on July 28, 2023 by km55

description below

“Portrait of Mrs Jordan as Peggy in ‘The Country Girl’ after Romney, standing three-quarter length with her hands clasped together in front of a doorway and column; state after title changed, before engraver’s name altered.”–British Museum online catalogue.

Printmaker: Ogborne, John, 1755-1837, printmaker.
Title: Mrs. Jordan in the character of the Country Girl [graphic] / George Romney pinxit ; John Ogborne sculpsit.
Publication: [London] : Publish’d June 24th, 1788, by John & Josiah Boydell, No. 90 Cheapside, London, [24 June 1788]

Catalog Record

Portraits J82 no. 2

Acquired February 2023

Mr. Kean as Othello

Posted on May 20, 2022 by km55

description below

In this image, a full-length image of Edmund Kean as Othello constructed from parts of a print or prints while his costume and hat and their trimming are cut from satin cloth with additional decorated paper trimming and small metal buttons. This image is the only one of the four mounted on a secondary sheet, this one ruled as if from a ledger.

Title: Mr. Kean as Othello [art original] : Act 5th, Scene 3rd / made by the author.
Production: [England], [ca. 1828]

Catalog Record

Drawings C697 no. 1 Box D115

Acquired April 2021

Buck metamorphos’d

Posted on February 1, 2022 by km55

description below

“Portrait of Samuel Foote in character; whole length, standing, wearing the latest ‘French’ fashions, including large fur muff, wig with pointed sides, mis-matched tights, and coat with over-sized cuffs; his outfit is scrutinized by two English gentlemen to the right; two men in background, one preparing a hat, bending over a dressing table with mirror.”–British Museum online catalogue.
On the back wall are two large framed pictures, both with scenes from mythology. On the left, Apollo with bow and arrow pursues Daphne who has begun the turn into a laurel tree. On the right, Leda and the swan.

Printmaker: Smith, Gabriel, 1724-1783, printmaker, artist.
Title: Buck metamorphos’d, or, Mr. Foote in the character of the Englishman return’d from Paris [graphic] / drawn & engrav’d by Gabl. Smith.
Publication: London : Printed for John Ryall & Robt. Withy, at Hogarth’s Head in Fleet Street, [ca. 1756]

Catalog Record

756.00.00.99+

Acquired January 2021

For the benefit of Joe Miller

Posted on August 27, 2021 by km55

Copy of a benefit ticket whose design was formerly attributed to Hogarth: a stage scene with four performers in Congreve’s ‘The Old Bachelor’, showing the scene in Act III where Noll receives a kicking from Sharper; print after a forgery purporting to be a benefit ticket for Joe Miller for his performance as Sir Joseph Wittol.

Title: For the benefit of Joe Miller [graphic] : Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The old batchelor / W. Hogarth ft.
Publication: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [early 19th century?]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 800.00.00.02 Box 140

Acquired August 2020

Monsr. Alexandre in The rogueries of Nicholas

Posted on July 28, 2021 by km55

“A scene from a play: a soldier admired by a lady at her dressing table stands before a table of heads and ghosts, with an elderly couple to the right.”–British Museum online catalogue.

Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker, artist.
Title: Monsr. Alexandre in The rogueries of Nicholas [graphic] / drawn & etch’d by W. Heath.
Publication: [Dublin] ; [London] : Pubd. 22nd Jany. 1825 by Wm. Heath at the new Panorama, 15 Grafton St., Dublin, and Henry Heath, London, [22 January 1825]

Catalog Record

825.01.22.01+

Acquired January 2020

Harlequin and Mother Goose, or, The golden egg

Posted on July 9, 2021 by km55

A writing sheet illustrated with scenes from Thomas Dibdin’s pantomime, first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on Boxing Day 1806, a few months before this sheet was issued. There were at least twelve different scenes in Dibdin’s work, from which nine were chosen to illustrate the borders of the sheet. Another illustration at the foot of the sheet shows a carriage and a wagon followed by soldiers on horseback on a bridge over a river.

Title: Harlequin and Mother Goose, or, The golden egg [graphic].
Publication: [London] : Publish’d March 25, 1807, by Laurie & Whittle, 53 Fleet Street, London, [25 March 1807]

Catalog Record

807.03.25.01++

Acquired March 2020

Theatre Royal

Posted on March 23, 2021 by km55

A theater ticket with a scene from the play The mock doctor: Gregory, the mock doctor, holds the Charlotte’s wrist, as they look at her father who points to his mouth indicating that she is mute. The print after a forgery purporting to be an admission ticket for a performance of Fielding’s The Mock Doctor.

Title: Theatre Royal [graphic] : April [blank] a comedy with The mock doctor for the benefit of the author of the farce / W. Hogarth ft.
Publication: [London?] : [publisher not identified], [early 19th century?]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 800.00.00.01

Acquired August 2020

Comic dance in the popular pantomime of The white cat

Posted on July 10, 2013 by km55

“The clowns Kirby and Chatterley, one dressed in female costume, dancing.”–British Museum online catalogue.

Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
Title: Comic dance in the popular pantomime of The white cat [graphic] : by Messr. Kirby & Chatterley to the tune of The bold dragoon / draw [sic] & etched by W. Heath.
Published: [London] : Pub. 5th of Jany. 1812 by T. Palser, Bridge Road, Lambeth, [5 January 1812]

Catalog record & Digital collection

812.01.05.01+

Acquired November 2012

Grimaldi and the nondescript in the Red Dwarf

Posted on July 9, 2013 by km55

Artist: Heath, William, 1795-1840, artist.
Title: Grimaldi & the nondescript in The red dwarf [graphic] : the clown kills the pantaloon and afterwards dresses him in the skin of a lion, the head of an ass, eagles wings, cats feet & a fishes tail / W. Heath del.
Published: [London? : s.n., ca. 1812, printing not before 1815]

Catalog record & Digital collection

812.00.00.94+

Acquired November 2012

Recent Antiquarian Acquisitions

The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

Tag Archives: Theatrical productions

High life below stairs

Mrs. Jordan in the character of the Country Girl

Mr. Kean as Othello

Buck metamorphos’d

For the benefit of Joe Miller

Monsr. Alexandre in The rogueries of Nicholas

Harlequin and Mother Goose, or, The golden egg

Theatre Royal

Comic dance in the popular pantomime of The white cat

Grimaldi and the nondescript in the Red Dwarf

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