[Playing billiards] [graphic]Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, printmaker[ca. 1835]eng"A game of billiards is being played on a table, one corner of which only is visible, so curiously elongated that it gives the impression of a triangular table. The two players stand by the corner of the table, the one who is about to make a stroke appears from his leanness, frogged coat, and long pigtail queue to be a Frenchman; he leans over the table in profile to the left, wearing pince-nez. His opponent watches him, standing on top-toe, his cue held over his left shoulder, his face screwed up in anxiety; he wears a bag-wig. A number of spectators look on with expressions of amusement or concern: on the right two men stand together grinning; on the left a man watches open-mouthed; behind the table a man watches with an expression of alarm, another takes cover behind him with a grin; a small boy stands beside them. In the foreground are two dogs, one, a greyhound, stands between the player's legs. On the wall behind the table is a rack of cues and two clock-faced scoring boards both pointing to the figure X. On the right is a door, on the left a small casement window. Pictures and prints decorate the wall (left to right): a print of Wilkes (bust) with two caps of liberty; a print of a nymph and satyr; a print of a man seated, three quarter length; a print of a man and woman whole-length; two framed landscapes."--British Museum online catalogueTitle from later state.Printmaker from unverified data in local card catalog record.State before title added. See Caricatures. [London] : [Publisher not identified], [1836?], p. 82.Date of publication based on that of the volume in which the later state was published.Sheet trimmed within plate mark.A reduced copy of no. 5913 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 5.Shading added in pencil to lower part of design, mostly obscuring artist's signature in lower left corner.Titled in pencil below image: Billiards.