"A game of billiards is being played on a table, one corner of which only is visible, so curiously elongated that it gives the impression of a triangular table. The two players stand by the corner of the table, the one who is about to make a stroke appears from his leanness, frogged coat, and long pigtail queue to be a Frenchman; he leans over the table in profile to the left, wearing pince-nez. His opponent watches him, standing on top-toe, his cue held over his left shoulder, his face screwed up in anxiety; he wears a bag-wig. A number of spectators look on with expressions of amusement or concern: on the right two men stand together grinning; on the left a man watches open-mouthed; behind the table a man watches with an expression of alarm, another takes cover behind him with a grin; a small boy stands beside them. In the foreground are two dogs, one, a greyhound, stands between the player's legs. On the wall behind the table is a rack of cues and two clock-faced scoring boards both pointing to the figure X. On the right is a door, on the left a small casement window. Pictures and prints decorate the wall (left to right): a print of Wilkes (bust) with two caps of liberty; a print of a nymph and satyr; a print of a man seated, three quarter length; a print of a man and woman whole-length; two framed landscapes."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Printmaker and publication information from a smaller version of this design published 1 Mar. 1803 by R. Ackerman. See Grego, J. Rowlandson the caricaturist, v. 2, page 42., Plate also published in: Caricatures / drawn & etched by those celebrated artists Gillray, Rowlandson, Cruikshanks, &c. [London : Publisher not identified, 1836?], p. 41., A copy of no. 5803 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 5., Imperfect; artist's signature erased from lower right corner of sheet., and 1 print : etching on wove paper, hand-colored ; plate mark 24.9 x 36 cm, on sheet 26 x 39 cm
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Topic):
Billiard rooms, Billiards, Dogs, Servants, and Pictures
