"Pitt (l.) and Napoleon face each other at a round dinner-table on which, in a dish, is a terrestrial globe in the form of a steaming plum-pudding. Pitt, with a carving knife, and three-pronged fork (like a trident) planted in the '[Atlantic] Ocean', cuts a deep gash to the west of 'Britain', extending from the Pole to the Equator; he obtains the 'West Indies'. Napoleon, using his sword and a two-pronged fork which straddles 'Hanover', is cutting from Europe a large fragment including 'France', 'Holland', 'Spain', 'Swiss[erland]', 'Italy', 'Mediterranean', but missing 'Sweden' and 'Russia'. Before each is an empty (gold) plate, on Pitt's the Royal Arms, on Napoleon's an imperial crown. On the back of Pitt's chair is a crowned British Lion on its hind-legs, holding up a Union flag; a fierce imperial eagle clutching a bonnet rouge decorates that of Napoleon. Pitt, very tall and thin, wears a cocked hat and regimentals and long pigtail (cf. BMSat 10113, &c). Napoleon, sturdier and much shorter, has almost to rise from his chair to reach the pudding. He wears military dress, a huge plumed bicorne resting on his shoulders. Pitt looks warily at Napoleon who stares fiercely at the pudding. The figures are seven-eighths length. Below the title: '- "the great Globe itself, and all which it inherit" [sic, 'Tempest', iv. i], is too small to satisfy such insatiable appetites - Vide Mr W-d-m's [Windham's] eccentricities, in ye Political Register.' (For Windham as a contributor to Cobbett's paper see BMSat 10414)."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
State epicures taking un petit souper
Description:
Title etched in upper right corner of image., Temporary local subject terms: Globe -- Dining table -- Trident -- Lion of England - Carving knives., and Unidentified stamp on verso.
Publisher:
Pubd. Feby. 26th, 1805, by H. Humphrey, 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Pitt, William, 1759-1806 and Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
