An advertisement in verse, with two columns of letterpress text beginning “With humblest deference we greet …”; wood-engraved illustration at top depicting two ladies trying on wigs both facing a bust with “Princes’ Royal” on plinth; an “Explanation” printed below in five lines; all within a typographic ornament border.
- Author: Packwood, George.
- Title: Packwood’s address, he’s not lesser, a perfumer than hair-dresser.
- Publication: [London] : W. Bailey, printer […], [1788]
File 66 788 P119
Acquired December 2021
A print with 16 numbered oval images, four rows of four images, showing women hairstyles and hairpieces decorated with ribbons and lace.
A view of the interior of a riding-school: A number of men riding round in a circle; those in the foreground ride from right to left, those in the background from left to right. The riding-master stands in the centre, pointing with hand and cane, and grinning at a short fat man in a clerical wig who is running across the room, alarmed at the horses. A short obese man in back-view on the extreme right, who is about to mount his horse has been identified as Captain Grose. Next him is a man with a grotesque impression of alarm riding a plunging horse. Among the riders are two with clerical wigs. One horse is galloping, out of control, the others are quietly ambling round. Two sides of a high rectangular room or hall are visible; in each wall are two high arch-topped windows.
“Husband and wife dressing in a bedroom, the tent-shaped bed-curtains forming a background. The woman is thin and has a mole on her face, the man broad, but their deficiencies are similar. She stands (left), about to raise her shift and adjust false posteriors. A false bust, false teeth, and wig, simulating natural curls, are on the table behind her, on which are also the man’s wig and an eye in a tumbler of water. Both are bald. He sits (right) in shirt and breeches, about to put on a pair of stockings with false calves of fleece. Both register sour dissatisfaction with themselves and each other.”–British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state.
