[A penny barber] [graphic].Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, printmaker[1789]eng"A very fat man draped in a sheet, his vast chin lathered, turns his eyes upwards to a thin barber who stands beside him (left), his bowl in one hand, soap in the other. Behind (left) a bald man bends over a basin, stanching a wound; and (right) the barber's man applies a flat-iron to a wig on a standing wig-block with a carved face. From the raftered ceiling hangs a lamp in a rectangular (?) paper shade inscribed: 'The Oldest Shaving Shop in London Most Mony for second Hand Wigs'. On the wall hang a bird in a cage, a print of two men, a wig. Wig-blocks, a razor, and the customer's wig lie on the floor."--British Museum online catalogue, description of lettered stateTitle and publisher from lettered state.Proof before letters; plate later published with the title "A penny barber" and imprint "London, Pubd. by Wm. Holland, No. 50 Oxford Street." Cf. Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 6, no. 7605.Date from description of lettered state in British Museum catalogue.Sheet trimmed within plate mark.Companion print to: A sufferer for decency.Cf. Grego, J. Rowlandson the caricaturist, v. 1, page 257-8.Mounted on leaf 54 of volume 3 of 14 volumes.