Launching a frigate [graphic]Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, printmaker[not before 1 February 1809]eng"Scene at the door of a Portsmouth brothel, a corner-house. A handsome young prostitute, elaborately dressed, with curls, feathered hat, and fluttering sash, walks from it, gazing straight before her. Behind her is a fat and hideous bawd, hands on hips, who watches her with calculating malevolence. The bawd wears a watch and seals dangling from her waist; behind her is a doorway inscribed 'Hotel', with an oil-lamp (as in British Museum Satires No. 11454) projecting from the door-post; a bell-pull is inscribed 'Ring the Bell'. Just within the door is a dark lobby lit by a lamp hanging from the ceiling and leading to a second (closed) door in which there is a small grille or judas. On the wall of the house is the inscription 'Portsmouth Dock', and three bills: 'From the Country an Assortment of Fresh Ware'; 'A Tragedy in Rehearsal'; 'Leakes Genuine Pills'. In the background is a humbler establishment, with irregular gabled roof and a porch inscribed 'Lodgings'. A sailor stands looking up at a woman who leans from the window with outstretched arms. Flames and smoke belch from the chimney. Behind it are masts and sails."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier stateTitle etched below image.Reissue, with first half of imprint statement burnished from plate.Date of publication based on earlier state with the complete imprint "Pubd. Febry. 1, 1809, by Thomas Tegg, No. 111 Cheapside." Cf. No. 11461 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8.Plate numbered "207" in upper right corner.Plate from: Woodward, G.M. Caricature magazine, or Hudibrastic mirror. London : Thomas Tegg, [1808?], v. 3.Cf. Grego, J. Rowlandson the caricaturist, v. 2, pages 130-1.Leaf 64 in volume 3.