"Eight authors, lean and elderly, dine at an oval table in a handsome book-lined room. A plump man sits at the head of the table (left), reading and gesticulating. The others drink wine, or eat dessert; one helps himself from a punch-bowl. Below the design: "People think that we often dine with Democritus, and there they are mistaken. There is not one of my fraternity, not even excepting the makers of Almanacks who is not welcome to some good table - As for my own part, there are two families where I am received with pleasure. I have two covers laid for me every day one at the house of a fat director of the farms to whom I have dedicated a romance, and the other at the house of a rich Citizen who has the desease of being thought to entertain wits ever) day at his table, luckily he is not very delicate in his choice and the city furnishes him with great plenty"."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Publisher from the British Museum online catalogue., One of a group of prints that were collected and published as the volume: Rowlandson, T. Miseries of human life. [London] : Published December 14, 1808, by R. Ackermann ..., [1808]. See British Museum catalogue and Grego., Watermark: J. Whatman Turkey Mills 1818., and Mounted on verso of leaf 41 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
"Three quarter length portrait of a woman, handsome, well-dressed, and dignified, standing in profile to the left, right arm extended, making a speech. She is 'President of the Ladies' Debating Society', who can prove 'that man is an usurper of dignities and preferments, and that her sex has a just right to participation ...'."--British Museum catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Publisher and date of publication from engraved frontispiece to the volume; see no. 11155 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., Plate from: A lecture on heads / by Geo. Alex. Stevens ; with additions, as delivered by Mr. Charles Lee Lewes ; ... embellished with twenty-five humourous characteristic prints, from drawings by G.M. Woodward, Esq. London : Printed for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe ..., 1808., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Numbered "11" in upper left corner., and Mounted on leaf 43 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
"Four ladies sit at a round table, two old and ugly, the others young and comely. The ugliest (left) peers through spectacles at a newspaper, screaming, "Mercy on us here is news!! They write from Hanover that when Boney part took possession of that country, he ravish'd all the Women!!" The other, holding up her fan, exclaims: "O! the Wretch". The two younger ladies (right) turn to each other, saying, "It is very true Ma'am it is only a word and a blow with him-Your Honour or your property", and "Well Ma'am if he should come here, at all events I will take care of my property". A young girl, sitting demurely at a little distance from the table, her wrists crossed on her lap, says: "So will I Mamma!" A butler with a tray of glasses enters the door, grinning."--British Museum online catalogue, description of a variant state
Description:
Title etched below image., State with publication date present. For a variant state with publication date lacking, see no. 11465 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., Plate numbered "35" in upper left corner., "Price one shilling coulered [sic].", Cf. Grego, J. Rowlandson the caricaturist, v. 2, page 289., and Mounted on leaf 2 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
"Half length portrait of a laughing man, full face, shoulders shrugged and hands extended deprecatingly. He is 'all levity and lightness, singing and capering from morning till night ...'."--British Museum catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Publisher and date of publication from engraved frontispiece to the volume; see no. 11155 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., Plate from: A lecture on heads / by Geo. Alex. Stevens ; with additions, as delivered by Mr. Charles Lee Lewes ; ... embellished with twenty-five humourous characteristic prints, from drawings by G.M. Woodward, Esq. London : Printed for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe ..., 1808., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Mounted on leaf 40 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
"Joseph, neatly dressed as an avocat, takes an enormous step from the rail of a desk (right) on which his right toe is poised to a wall 'Map of Spain & Portugal' on a level with his shoulders, where his left toe touches 'Madrid'. His hands are raised above his head to clutch at a mass of fringed cushions on which is the crown of 'Spain', with a sceptre. On the wall is pinned a notice: 'Notary Public Bayonne'. Four clerks sit facing each other at the desk he has left, which has double slopes, divided by the low rail from which he steps. One asks: "Why Joseph wither art thou going"; he looks down answer: "Whither - but to fill my high destiny? And like my noble Brother Sway tne Sceptre of another." The other clerks say respectively: "But proverbs tell of many Slips, Between the tankard & the lips, And really I am apt to give, The proverb credit as I live" and "He must needs go whom the Devil drives and should it cost his Neck; Ownds! what a prodigious step for a Notary's clerk"."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Watermark: J. Whatman., and Mounted on leaf 10 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
Publisher:
Pubd. August 18th, 1808, by R. Ackermann, N. 101 Strand
Subject (Name):
Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, 1768-1844, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821., and Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles Maurice de, prince de Bénévent, 1754-1838.
Title etched below image., Date of publication inferred from statement of responsibility., Sheet trimmed within plate mark on top edge., Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires., 1 print : etching on laid paper, hand-colored ; plate mark 25.9 x 32.4 cm, on sheet 26.6 x 33.7 cm., Watermark., and Mounted on leaf 21 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
"A copy of a Rowlandson watercolour, see British Museum Satires No. 11111. Three old Jews stand in the street, in close consultation. All wear old-fashioned dress with beards, and long buttoned coats, one resembling a caftan. Behind are the old-fashioned houses of 'Dukes Place'; old clothes hang from a shop inscribed 'Solomon'."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark on three sides., Watermark, partially trimmed: J. Whatman., and Mounted on leaf 16 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
"Realistic bust in profile to the left, on a round base, of a man with coarse features, staring eye, gaping mouth."--British Museum catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Publisher and date of publication from engraved frontispiece to the volume; see no. 11155 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., Plate from: A lecture on heads / by Geo. Alex. Stevens ; with additions, as delivered by Mr. Charles Lee Lewes ; ... embellished with twenty-five humourous characteristic prints, from drawings by G.M. Woodward, Esq. London : Printed for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe ..., 1808., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Numbered "3" in upper left corner; number is etched backwards., and Mounted on leaf 44 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
"Half length portrait of a man wearing ear-rings, with his hands on and over the keyboard of a piano, looking round, with eyes turned up, and mouth wide. An attack on large fees to foreign opera-dancers and singers."--British Museum catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Publisher and date of publication from engraved frontispiece to the volume; see no. 11155 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., Plate from: A lecture on heads / by Geo. Alex. Stevens ; with additions, as delivered by Mr. Charles Lee Lewes ; ... embellished with twenty-five humourous characteristic prints, from drawings by G.M. Woodward, Esq. London : Printed for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe ..., 1808., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Numbered "13" in upper left corner., and Mounted on leaf 41 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
"Three quarter length portrait of a jockey, in profile to the right, holding a switch and leaning forward with hands together as if holding reins."--British Museum catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Publisher and date of publication from engraved frontispiece to the volume; see no. 11155 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., Plate from: A lecture on heads / by Geo. Alex. Stevens ; with additions, as delivered by Mr. Charles Lee Lewes ; ... embellished with twenty-five humourous characteristic prints, from drawings by G.M. Woodward, Esq. London : Printed for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe ..., 1808., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Numbered "2" in upper left corner., Watermark, partially trimmed: 180[...?]., and Mounted on leaf 44 of volume 9 of 14 volumes.
