Four rows of designs with one to four designs in each row, individually titled. The pairs are visual puns, e.g., starting at the top row from the left, “A box at the opera” shows two men fist fighting; “A rain beau” shows a couple walking in the rain, he not sharing the one umbrella; a man with has hooks for arms addresses a small group, “To arms, to arms — Brave boys”. The second row, the images show domestic scenes of various social classes, including clerks, dustmen, chimney sweeps, all playing instruments or singing, titled “The musical mania” who woun’d’nt have a piano.” The third row “Small profits & quick returns” shows a large man hitting a thinner man in the face outside a printshop window; “The light guitar” shows a red-nosed man smoking a large pipe and holding a guitar under his arm standing with his back to the blazing fire, unaware that his guitar is burning; in “Standing his ground” a soldier’s legs are shot off by a cannon ball. The fourth row contains four scenes: “A Hottentot & a Holterman” depicting a Black man and a Chinese man; “80 in the shade” shows an old man sitting on a bench under an arbor; “Two Beaks” two stick-figures of a judge and a soldier; “Little Andrew” is drawn as a man with no legs on a platform with wheels; and finally, “Ass matical” is illustrated with an image of a sick ass with scarfs over his head and throat, sneezing
- Title: A box at the opera A rain beau ; [and 10 other designs]
- Creator: Grant, C. J. (Charles Jameson), active 1830-1852, lithographer, artist
- Publication: London, 1 August 1834
834.08.01.04+
Acquired October 2024
A scene in a fashionable library with ladies and gentlemen conversing with attendants at the counters on either side. On the left a woman looks in a book while her male companion converses with a clergyman, as the woman behind the counter consults a book. On the right, a man sits in a chair as a lady discusses her choices with the man behind the counter who reaches for a book below a sign ‘Stamp’. Behind him is another sign “Just published […]” An older woman with a walking stick approaches the counter on the right, followed by a Black servant and a dog. The windows are filled with books and prints. Through the open door a woman with an umbrella is silhouetted; to the left another sign “History Westminster and its monuments.”