Reflection to be, or not to be? [graphic]

Description

Title: Reflection to be, or not to be? [graphic]
Creator: Cruikshank, Robert, 1789-1856, printmaker
Contributor: Fores, S. W., publisher
Published / Created: [11 February 1820]
Publication Place: London
Publisher: Pubd. Feby. 11, 1820, by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly, London
Abstract: George IV, looking into a full length mirror, is startled by the sight of the likeness of his estranged wife, Caroline looking back at him over the shoulder of his reflection in the mirror. He wears a crown, his coronet and feathers discarded on the floor beside him. The carpet, chair, and table-cloth are decorated with the Royal Arms
Description: Title etched below image.
Printmaker from the British Museum catalogue.
Sheet trimmed to plate mark.
1 print : etching ; sheet 34.3 x 23.6 cm.
Printed on laid paper with watermark "Weatherley & Lane 1818"; hand-colored.
Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Mounted to 58 x 39 cm.
Mounted on leaf 2 in volume 1 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair."
The figure of "Geo. IV" is identified in ink above title; date "11 Feb. 1820" is written in lower right. Typed extract of nine lines from the British Museum catalogue description is pasted beneath print.
Provenance: Sold by London's Dulau and Company to the New York City bookseller Ernest R. Gee in 1928. Earlier ownership by W.E. Gladstone is suggested by a manuscript note from Dulau formerly laid into the front the first volume (now in the object file), which states that "These came from the Gladstone Library at Court Hey, Broad Green. The manuscript notes written below the caricatures are in the handwriting of W.E. Gladstone." William Reese Company; February 2024.
Extent: 1 print : sheet 34 x 23.3 cm
Extent of Digitization: This object has been completely digitized.
Language: English