The Chamber of Commerce, or, L'assemblée des Not-ables Anglois [graphic]

"A number of men with asses' heads sit round a table signing a petition. They are upon a platform in a ramshackle room; a ladder rests against its left corner; on the ladder appear the head and shoulders of Fox in back view; he holds strings attached to the noses of the asses. The ass seated at the head of the table (left) hands down to him a 'Petition to the House of Commons for Delay [signed] Ign[or]amus'. An ass holds a long document, the 'Commercial Treaty with France', which falls across the table on to the ground; on his right shoulder an ass rests his head; another on the left sleeps with his head resting on a pile of books on the table. A spectacled ass writes busily; next him, at the end of the table (right), an ass leans back asleep. The nose of a braying ass appears through a door on the extreme right. Behind the table an ass places a notice on the wall: 'Chamber of Commerce at a Meeting held the 10th of February Resolved'. This partly covers another bill: 'Chamber [of] Commerce at a Meeting 9th Decr 1786 Resolv[ed]'. On a shelf (left) a figure of Mercury with a wooden leg dances, flourishing a caduceus; the right hand is broken off; behind it part of a vase is visible inscribed 'Wedgwood'. Figure and vase are on a pedestal inscribed 'Ex Quovis Ligno non fit Mercurius'. A casement window with broken panes and a raftered ceiling indicate the squalor of the room."--British Museum online catalogue