The radical ladder [graphic].

Description

Title: The radical ladder [graphic].
Contributor: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, artist.
Humphrey, G., active approximately 1820, publisher.
Published / Created: August 12, 1821.
Publication Place: London
Publisher: Published by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James's St.
Abstract: "Queen Caroline reaches the top step of a flimsy double-ladder, pushed by the foremost of a train of gnome-like Jacobins who scramble up behind her or wait (right) to ascend. She holds a blazing firebrand (cf. British Museum Satires No. 14145) emitting clouds of smoke, with which she tries to reach the royal crown (irradiated), which rests on a cushion and Bible, on the summit of a pillar representing the Constitution. A mitre and crosier are carved on the pillar which is spiralled with a band inscribed (reading upwards) 'Commons', 'Lords', 'King'. On the square base are the equally balanced scales of Justice. The Queen wears a feathered hat and an enormously long cloak, under which the Radicals on the ladder are sheltering. These wear caps of Liberty (or Folly) with tricolour cockades; one has a dagger, one a pike, one (Hunt) a bludgeon, one holds the shaft of a banner, inscribed 'Democracy Republic', topped by a cap of Liberty. The rungs of the ladder are: 'Spa Fields Riot'; 'Smithfield', Hunt climbs from one to the other; 'Hunts Procession'; 'Peter[loo]'; 'Cato Stre[et', see No. 13707, &c.]; 'Queens Arrival' [see No. 13730, &c.]; 'Radical Address' [see British Museum Satires No. 13934, &c.]; 'Mob Government' [the top]. The back of the ladder (reading downwards): 'Revolution'; 'Anarchy'; 'Ruin'."--British Museum online catalogue, description of a smaller version of the same design
Description: Title etched below image.
A smaller version of this design, signed "G. Cruikshank fect.", was published October 1820 as a plate to The Loyalist's magazine; see no. 13895 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 10. This larger version is briefly mentioned at the end of the above catalogue entry: "An enlarged version was published by Humphrey, 12 Aug. 1821 ..."
Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Temporary local subject terms: Jacobins -- Firebrands -- Royal crowns -- Constitution -- Mitre and crosier -- Scales of justice -- Cap of folly -- Daggers -- Weapons: pike, bludgeon -- Sticks: bludgeon.
Mounted to 58 x 39 cm.
Mounted on leaf 102 in volume 2 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair."
Figure of "Caroline" identified in pencil below image. Typed extract of fourteen lines from the British Museum catalogue description for No. 13895 (which mentions this print) 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 of 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 39 x 23.6 cm
Extent of Digitization: This object has been completely digitized.
Language: English