"A design in six compartments arranged in two rows, each with a title. [1] 'Johnnys reception by "merry Tonkanoo at Negro Ball'. The ball is in an open shed with a negro fiddler seated high on a hogshead; most of the guests watch Johnny, the only white, and 'Tonkanoo' bowing to each other. The latter is a tall negro with huge false moustache and long wig, feathered hat, and wide-cuffed coat in imitation of English dress c. 1740, with breeches and bare legs. A negro behind Johnny disperses flies with a branch. A negro couple is dancing; the ladies are fully dressed, some with tall cylindrical hats. Behind are distant mountains. [2] 'Johnny dancing with Rosa--the Planters beautiful daughter'. At the same ball all the negroes form a background of admiring spectators while Johnny, still wearing his enormous hat, dances with a pretty English girl in conventional evening dress, holding both her hands. Tonkanoo stands with his arms extended towards them. In the foreground (left) is a little naked negro Cupid with bow, quiver, and arrows, pointing to the couple. [3] 'Johnnys Courtship and professions of Love to Rosa'. Rosa reclines on a sofa under a piece of drapery looped from a tree; Johnny (left), hat in hand, kneels at her feet while the Cupid aims his bow at him. A pet monkey sits beside Rosa, and behind her (right) stands a negro girl brushing away flies with a branch. Johnny's servant is behind (left) holding an umbrella. Two cockatoos bill on a branch. [4] 'Johnny and the fair Rosa tripping to the Altar of Hymen'. The pair run hand in hand along a path which winds to a church resembling an English village church. Negro servants run after them, one holding up a large umbrella. Before them run two little negroes; one is Cupid playing a fiddle, the other, Hymen, holds up a lighted torch. In the distance, nearing the church, are the parson and his clerk. [5] 'Nuptial ceremony of Johnny and the charming Rosa'. In a Gothic church the parson with his book stands behind a cylindrical altar on which are two hearts transfixed by an arrow. Johnny puts the ring on Rosa's finger. The congregation are delighted negroes and negresses. Against the altar sit Cupid and Hymen; Cupid wears Johnny's huge hat and plays the fiddle; Hymen blows at his torch. [6] 'Johnny and his fair Bride reveling in Jollity and festive mirth'. Johnny, tipsily jovial, his father-in-law, and Rosa, sit at table, drinking, the men smoking, many bottles of 'Sangaree' on the floor. A man fiddles, and in the background a dance is in progress. Johnny wears his planter's hat, &c., as in British Museum Satires No. 11983, and has always a swarm of flies round his head. Rosa throughout wears her ball-dress, with feathers in her hair."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state
Description:
Title etched above image., State before imprint mostly burnished from plate., Plate numbered "180" in upper right corner. Also numbered in upper left: Pl. 2., Plate from: Woodward, G.M. Caricature magazine, or Hudibrastic mirror. London : Thomas Tegg, [1808?], v. 3., Also issued separately., and "Price one shilling coloured."
Publisher:
Pubd. by Ts. Tegg
Subject (Topic):
Black people, Celebrations, Courtship, Dance, Intoxication, Marriage, and Musicians