A bottle of smoak, or, A song of sixpence [graphic]

Description

Title: A bottle of smoak, or, A song of sixpence [graphic]
Alternative Title: Song of sixpence
Creator: Marshall, John, Junior, active 1820, printmaker
Contributor: Marshall, John, Junior, active 1820, publisher.
Published / Created: [8 September 1820]
Publication Place: London
Publisher: Pub. Sep. 8, 1820, by John Marshall Junr., 24 Little St. Martins Lane
Abstract: "Ministers, much burlesqued, registering terror or anxiety, are grouped on either side of a large bottle of 'Evidence against the Queen' from which rise clouds of smoke, inscribed 'Lies' (four times) and 'Non mi Ricordo' [five times]. On the left sits Liverpool, saying: "We shall be all sent to the Devil." Next him Eldon scowls: "D--n that Non mi Ricordo." Wellington, fiercely anxious, stands behind Liverpool's chair holding a scimitar. Facing Liverpool sits Sidmouth, holding his clyster-pipe to his nostril, and exclaiming: "O! how reviving." Castlereagh exclaims: "Oh! L--d we shall be cast." Gifford says: "Oh! the secrets will come out." A seventh, (?) Harrowby, stands with a hand on the heads of Sidmouth and Castlereagh."--British Museum online catalogue
Description: Title etched below image.
Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Six lines of verse in two columns below title: Sing a song of sixpence a bag full of lies, Four and twenty witnesses all prov'd to be Spies, Before the bag was open'd the ministers 'gan to sing, Oh! here we have a dainty dish to set before the King. But when the bag was open'd the Lords began to stare, To see their precious evidence all vanish into air.
Mounted to 58 x 39 cm.
Mounted (with one other print) on leaf 80 in volume 1 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair."
Figures of "Wellington," "Liverpool," "Eldon," "Castlereagh," and "Sidmouth" identified in ink at bottom of image; date "8 Sep. 1820" written in lower right corner. Typed extract of two 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 26.7 x 38.4 cm
Extent of Digitization: This object has been completely digitized.
Language: English