Bitter fare, or, Sweeps regaling [graphic]Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, printmaker[1812]eng"A family of sweeps sitting before the smoking hearth (at right) in a low hovel, eating, drinking and smoking; all have sooty skin apart from the grotesque mother who leans back, barebreasted and negligently holding a long pipe, against a heap of sacks; a man sitting alongside and smoking a long pipe leers at her, another beside him; four children lie or sit on the floor eating with spoons from bowls, at one of which a cat also sits; on the rafters, above the billowing smoke, a caged black bird and an uncaged white bird."--British Museum online catalogueTitle etched below image.Probably a reissue of a plate first published in 1802; the year etched above Rowlandson's signature might have originally been "1802," and was seemingly modified to "1808" and then possibly "1812" before being mostly obscured with crosshatching. See Grego.Date of publication from Grego.Possibly a companion print to: Love and dust.Sheet trimmed within plate mark.Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires.Mounted on leaf 17 of volume 12 of 14 volumes.