Head and brains!! [graphic]

Description

Title: Head and brains!! [graphic]
Creator: Vowles, S., active 1820-1825, printmaker
Contributor: Vowles, S., active 1820-1825, publisher.
Published / Created: [approximately November] 1820.
Publication Place: London
Publisher: Pubd. by S. Vowles
Abstract: "An imitation of British Museum Satires No. 9012. The profiles of George IV (left) and Queen Caroline (right), replacing those of George III and Pitt, and joined together by the merging of the former's wig and the latter's hair, rest on a dish supported by the King's massive whiskers and heavy jowl. The King is coarse, drink-blotched, melancholy, and larger in scale than the Queen, who is flatteringly depicted. A cherub's head supported on wings (left) blows a blast of 'Public Opinion' against a small crown, driving it from the King's head and breaking it in half. The left half is dim and partly obliterated; the right half, belonging to the Queen, is solid and bright. A ribbon hangs from each half: one, torn into three pieces, is inscribed 'God Sav/e Great G/eor'; the other: 'God Save Queen Caroline'. Towards the cherub is directed a counterblast of 'Persecution and Malice', issuing from a bladder (or clyster-pipe) blown by a saturnine profile (intended for Sidmouth) in the upper right corner, supported on webbed wings."--British Museum online catalogue
Description: Title etched below image.
Artist's name in statement of responsibility formed with a monogrammatic "SV" followed by a depiction of an owl and the letters "es".
Month of publication from the British Museum catalogue.
1 print : lithograph ; sheet 34 x 23.6 cm.
Printed on wove paper with watermark "Fellows 1819"; hand-colored.
Mounted to 58 x 39 cm.
Mounted on leaf 81 in volume 1 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair."
Figures of "Geo. IV" and "Caroline" identified in ink at bottom of sheet; date "1820" written in lower right corner. Typed extract of seventeen 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 34.5 x 25 cm
Extent of Digitization: This object has been completely digitized.
Language: English