"Fantastic scene at a London street corner which abuts on open country, the roadway deep in mud. A coach and pair advances left to right; the coachman has laid down reins and whip to read the Times through spectacles, the footman standing behind is deep in a book. A ragged but monocled street-sweeper on stilts sweeps towards a small child half-submerged in mud, and a lady in a monstrous hat who picks her way through the slough. On the foreground pavement a butcher and a dustman play chess, holding the board between them. One sits on a great joint of beef, the other on a bag; a dog runs off with a bullock's heart. A ragged ballad-singer plays a guitar, screeching operatically; her small child holds up a parasol. Two climbing boys with misshapen legs argue with each other, one uses a handkerchief. Two servants in livery walk arm-in-arm, one smoking a huge pipe (like the footman in BM Satires No. 15779). An apple-woman seated against a lamp-post reads Byron, while a boy sneaks an apple. The lamp-post is topped by a flaming sun, presumably of gas. A dust-cart is drawn by two asses tandem, with a postilion on the leader; the dustman, seated on his load (instead of walking with it) plays a 'cello. On the opposite pavement are three tiny street musicians: a fashionably dressed woman sings from a sheet of music to the accompaniment of a harpist and flautist with music-stand. In the background is steam-traffic: (1) a steam carriage for two with three wheels, a tall smoking funnel, and a pendent coal-scuttle, all but the last much as 'Mr D. Gordon's New Steam Coach, illustrated and described', Observer, 30 Dec, 1827. (2) A large steam lorry on which soldiers with bayoneted muskets sit in rows. A small carriage with a steersman and two passengers is drawn by a kite (a kite-drawn carriage was displayed in Regent's Park, Jan. 1828, described by Pückler-Muskau, Tour in England, 1948, p. 218). Behind is a narrow channel crossed by a suspension bridge linking Dover to Calais; another branch of the Channel is crossed by The . . . Tunnel (oddly drawn), the top of which collapses under the impact of a ship, so that water pours down. An aerial battleship supported by two balloons attacks three ships immediately below; they sink under a rain of flame and cannon-balls. There are also an ordinary balloon, a flying-machine drawn by wild geese, and an aerial vessel which collides with the moon. The foreground buildings are one vast shop-window and the adjacent house; over the window: Business of this Shop on a larger scale than any other house in London. The window is filled with draperies and ladies' huge hats (cf. BM Satires No. 15628). A lady, with a giant hat, pin-point waist, and vast sleeves, stares in. The adjoining house of the same height is three stories high, the principal floor with street-door, bow-windows, balconies, and awning is at the top; passengers are being hauled up to it by a man using a windlass to hoist chairs up a vertical chute from the street."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from caption below image., Print signed using William Heath's device: A man with an umbrella., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Watermark: J. Whatman.
Publisher:
Pub. Jany. 23 1828 by G. Humphrey St. James's Street
Subject (Topic):
Balloons (Aircraft), Carriages & coaches, City & town life, Steam, Storefronts, and Street vendors
