"Folding frontispiece to "A Political Lecture on Heads, alias Blockheads!! A Characteristic Poem: . . .Drawn from Craniological Inspection, after the Manner of Doctors Gall and Spurzheim, of Vienna. By Don Juan Asmodeus. London. Printed for the Author, and Published by John Fairburn, 2, Broadway, Ludgate-Hill (Price One Shilling)." Ten half length caricature portraits arranged in two rows, and, except for the last two, in separate compartments, each illustrating a section of the verse-satire. The date is after Peterloo (16 August 1819), see British Museum Satires No. 13258, and before the King's death (29 Jan. 1820). [1] 'Derry-Down-Triangle', Castlereagh, with ass's ears, his head, adorned by a tiny gibbet, turned in profile to the left, holds up a scourge. On a scroll is the motto 'EIREN·GO·BRAY' (see British Museum Satires No. 13301). [2] 'State Jackal', Canning, directed to the left, holds a pistol in each hand. On his head is a triangle, bells hanging from its apex as from a fool's cap. Behind him is a package inscribed 'Lisbon 20.000 weight'. For his much-attacked mission to Lisbon see British Museum Satires No. 12872, for the duel with Castlereagh, British Museum Satires No. 11370, &c. [3] 'Quack Doctor' [cf. British Museum Satires No. 9849], Sidmouth, in profile to the left, holds a pike on which is speared a ball inscribed 'Circular Pills' [see British Museum Satires No. 13282, &c.]. On his head is a pestle and mortar inscribed 'Drugs for John Bull'. At his back is a large 'Bible' (like Liverpool he was an Evangelical). [4] 'Chancery Jack', the shoulders of Eldon, who scowls to the right, emerge from a 'Coal Tub' (as son of a Newcastle hoastman or coal-broker). He wears wig and gown, across his forehead is a bandage inscribed 'In Chancery'; from his mouth issues the word 'Equity'. [5] Liverpool, in profile to the left, spoons into his mouth liquid from a bowl of 'Water Gruel for the Poor' held in his left hand. On his head is a round tea-tray inscribed '£4.000'; on this are two cups and an urn inscribed 'Cordial Tea'. [6] 'Croaking-Frog--' Croker sits, pen in hand, in profile to the left; on his head is a frog. At his shoulder is a flag inscribed Dry . Rot . In . Navy' above two broken anchors. He says "Fal de Raltit," and before him is a paper: 'Talavira [sic] Algiers 2000'. He has an oddly shaped seat, resting his arm on a 'Quarterly Review', above a longer (curved) block inscribed 'Couriers'. (He was Secretary to the Admiralty, see British Museum Satires No. 12310, author of 'Talavera', a leading contributor to the 'Quarterly', and (with Arbuthnot) manager of the Press for the Ministry.) [7] 'Dunderass--' Lord Melville (First Lord of the Admiralty), in tartan, is in profile to the left, holding a pinch of snuff. Across his chest is a broad band: 'Pickings of Dad 60.000 [see British Museum Satires No. 10377, &c.] Place 10.000.' He wears a curious head-dress topped by a man-of-war surrounded by smoke. [8] 'Waterloo-Man--' Wellington, so styled by Hone, see British Museum Satires No. 13302, stands in profile to the left, wearing a cocked hat on which stands a cannon. He holds a dagger transfixing a bleeding heart; behind his back is a bundle inscribed 'Iquisition' [sic], across his chest is a placard: 'Coruption [sic] Prize . Money £60.000 Allowances £200.000 &c &c.' The text is a savage attack, e.g.: His soldiers 'sav'd the Spanish nation'; | Sav'd them--to send them to perdition | By 'Ferdinand's' crust [sic] 'Inquisition' [see British Museum Satires No. 13009] and (on Waterloo): The 'General' he'd not aught to do | But scenes of triumph to review [having lingered in Brussels]. For the campaign against pensions see British Museum Satires No. 12781, &c. [9 and 10] 'Chere-Amie', Lady Hertford in profile to the right, holds a sceptre and wears a crown-like coronet. She offers the Regent a large goblet of 'Noyau', saying, "Take another sup my Jewel. Grand-Lama--" The Regent leans back tipsily, his eyes almost closed. A little demon, holding a firebrand, flies towards him, flinging a noose at his head. See British Museum Satires No. 11853."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Attribution to George and Robert Cruikshank from pencil annotation on the British Museum impression; see British Museum catalogue., Frontispiece to: Asmodeus, J. A political lecture on heads, alias blockheads!! A characteristic poem ... London : J. Fairburn, [1819], Approximate month of publication from the British Museum online catalogue, registration no.: 1865,1111.614., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Mounted to 58 x 39 cm., Mounted (with one other print) on leaf 53 in volume 1 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair.", and All figures except Lady Hertford (bottom row, second from the right) identified in ink beneath their respective caricatures. Typed key to the figures (with Lady Hertford misidentified as "Caroline") pasted above print.
Publisher:
John Fairburn
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain.
Subject (Name):
George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Hertford, Isabella Anne Ingram-Seymour-Conway, Marchioness of, 1760-1834, Eldon, John Scott, Earl of, 1751-1838, Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of, 1770-1828, Sidmouth, Henry Addington, Viscount, 1757-1844, Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount, 1769-1822, Canning, George, 1770-1827, Croker, John Wilson, 1780-1857, Melville, Robert Saunders Dundas, Viscount, 1771-1851, and Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852
Leaf 31. Caricatures drawn & etched by those celebrated artists Gillray, Rowlandson, Cruikshanks
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
"The pair, both very bulky in Highland costume, are back to back. The King (right), wearing a feathered bonnet, a huge sporran, and a sword, stoops to kiss a lady (see British Museum Satires No. 14384), hands clasped behind her neck; he says: "The Sweetest hours that 'ere I spent, it was among The Lasses O! Other ladies eagerly wait their turn. One, behind the King, covers her face with her fan. Curtis, grotesquely obese, and directed to the left, capers, snapping his fingers. He wears a turtle in place of sporran, and in his belt are knife, fork, and ladle. Round his neck is a double chain of sausages. He sings: "Georgie loves good ale & wine And Geordie loves good Brandy And Geordie loves to Kiss all the Girls As sweet as Sugar Candy"-- God save the King Huzza my Boys!! I'm the Boy for a bit of a Jollification! play up Piper!! A piper (left) with bare, thin, and misshapen legs plays and dances. A stout Highlander watches with a grin. Frontispiece, perhaps issued separately, to 'Kilts and Philibegs!! - The Northern excursion of Geordie, Emperor of Gotham: and Sir Willie Curt-his, the Court Buffoon, &c. &c.'"--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Restrike. For original issue of the plate, see no. 14389 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 10., Plate from: Caricatures drawn & etched by those celebrated artists Gillray, Rowlandson, Cruikshanks, &c. [London] : [Field & Tuer], [ca. 1868?], Cf. Cohn, A.M. George Cruikshank: a catalogue raisonné, 607., Cf. Reid, G.W. A descriptive catalogue of the works of George Cruikshank, 1091., and On leaf 31 of: Caricatures drawn & etched by those celebrated artists Gillray, Rowlandson, Cruikshanks, &c.
Publisher:
Published Sept. 3, 1822, by John Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate Hill [i.e. Field & Tuer]
Subject (Name):
George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830 and Curtis, William, Sir, 1752-1829
"Plate to the 'Scourge', iv, before p. 349. An illustration to 'Elections in the Isle of Borneo', pp. 349-55, relating a dream in which the Prince chooses his Ministers and Household officers according to their proficiency in adultery. A sequel to British Museum Satires No. 11899. The Regent is enthroned under a canopy in the centre of a long platform backed by the pillars of Carlton House. Below is the cobbled street, with passers-by and spectators whose heads are just below the platform, so that the figures are arranged in two tiers. The Regent's throne is on a triple dais; he puts one arm round the waist of Lady Hertford who sits on his knee, holding at arms' length a brimming goblet. She puts her right arm round his neck, and also supports herself by placing a finger on the branching antlers of her husband, who stands in his chamberlain's robes, and holding his wand of office, beside the dais, at which he points with a complacent grin. He says: "My gracious Master is personelly acquainted with my merits, they live in his bosom, & he will reward me, according to my Deserts." Lady Hertford wears a spiky crown, and her vast spherical breasts are divided by a jewel in the form of the Prince's feathers with his motto 'Ich Dien.' The drapery over the throne is centred by the crowned skull of a stag, with wide antlers; in its nostrils is a ring from which a birch-rod hangs above the Prince's head. A grinning demon, standing on the antlers, straddles across the crown, holding up the drapery. On the left of the throne the Duke of York, in uniform with cavalry boots, his hand on his sword, stands swaggeringly. A woman clutches his arm and whispers in his ear; beside them is a basket containing three infants and inscribed 'Mother Careys Chickin' [see British Museum Satires No. 11050]. He says: "I was turned out of the Office I now solicit because I was too fond of a married Woman [Mrs. Clarke, see British Museum Satires No. 11216, &c.] & could not live without commiting Adultery I claim therefore to be once more elevated to the Office of Commander in Cheif." Behind Lord Hertford (and a pendant to Mrs. Carey) stands an elderly posturing peer, wearing a star, his hands deprecatingly extended. He says: "As for business I never had a Headfor't but I have laid the Country under a Massy load of Obligations in other respects Adultery is my Motto so give me ******ship of the H-." Next (right) is a group of three: the Duke of Cumberland in outlandish Death's Head Hussar uniform holding a sabre with a notched blade and seemingly dripping blood, though not so coloured. He stands between two young women; one, holding his arm, brandishes a razor over her head, the other holds a paper called 'Nugent'. The Duke says: "Considering my Exploits you cannot do less than make me a Field Marshal." On the extreme right is the Duke of Clarence in admiral's uniform with trousers, pointing to a broken chamber-pot ('Jordan') decorated with a crown and containing seven children, two in uniform. Mrs. Jordan takes him affectionately by the arm. He points downwards, saying, "I have lived in Adultery with an actress 25 years & have a pretty Number of illegetimate Children. I hope you will make me an Admiral of the Fleets." On the extreme left McMahon, dwarfish and ugly, stoops over the edge of the platform, pouring coins from a bag marked 'P P' [reversed letters], for Privy Purse (or Pimp), into the apron of a hideous bawd who grins up at him. He says: "Let her be forty at least, plump & Sprightly." Next stands Lord Yarmouth, wearing a star, his hands in his pockets, scowling at a young woman who puts her hands on his shoulders; he says: "Confound my Wishers if Venus alias Fanny Anny [Fagniani] may not go to Juno----I'm Vice all over. Let me con tinue so." Next is a tall man wearing a long driving-coat with a star and a small rakish top-hat (? Lord Melbourne); one leg terminates in a cloven hoof. He stands between two disreputable women of the lowest St. Giles type, ragged and hideous, an arm across the shoulders of each; both offer him drink, one takes him by the chin. A third and younger woman sits on the ground at his feet, drinking from a bottle. He says: "As for me my Name is sufficient, I am known as the Paragon of Debauchery and I only claim to be the-s [Regent's] Confidential Friend." On the ground (left to right) are the bawd receiving money from McMahon, a ragged dustman with the curved shin-bones then known as 'cheese-cutters', a result of rickets; George Hanger, with his bludgeon under his arm (cf. British Museum Satires No. 8889, &c.), saying, "Hang her She's quite Drunk"; Augustus Barry, grotesquely thin and very rakish, with long coat, standing with widely splayed-out feet. These three stare up at the throne, Barry looking through an eye-glass. A ragged, sub-human creature picks Barry's pocket, taking a paper: 'A Sermon to be Preached at Cripple gate by Revd Honble A Newgate'. A blind beggar (? a sailor) walks with a stick, and a dog on a string, holding out his tattered hat. A Quaker-like figure stares up at the platform where the legs of the seated prostitute hang over its edge, as does a beggar boy with badly twisted legs. Next, a fashionably dressed man and woman shake hands, bending to stare into each other's face. He takes her left hand. His dress resembles that of the dandy of a few years later: shock of hair, exaggerated neck-cloth, hussar-pattern trousers, and long tail-coat. The centre figure in this lower row is John Bull looking up angrily over his shoulder at the prostitute, and pushing away to the right three young girls; he says to them: "Get away get away, if you go near the Platform you'll be ruined." His bull-dog looks pugnaciously up at the platform. A tall emaciated cavalry soldier speaks to a woman in a poke-bonnet, while a little ragged boy clasps the long horse-tail which hangs from his helmet. On the extreme right is Sheridan in (ragged) Harlequin's dress (cf. British Museum Satires No. 9916), moribund or drunk, supported between two top-booted bailiffs; one holds a writ and says "Poor fellow his Magic wand is broken." On the ground lies his wooden sword in two pieces, one inscribed 'M', the other 'P'; at his feet is a paper: 'Princely Promises'."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Election in the island of Borneo
Description:
Title etched below image., Plate from: The Scourge, or, Monthly expositor of imposture and folly. London: W. Jones, v. 4 (October 1812), page 349., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Window mounted to 36 x 51 cm., and Mounted opposite page 318 (leaf numbered '143' in pencil) in volume 2 of an extra-illustrated copy of: Moore, T. Memoirs of the life of the Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Publisher:
Published November 1st, 1812, by W.N. Jones, No. 5 Newgate Street
Subject (Name):
George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Hertford, Francis Ingram Seymour, Marquess of, 1743-1822, Hertford, Isabella Anne Ingram-Seymour-Conway, Marchioness of, 1760-1834, Frederick Augustus, Prince, Duke of York and Albany, 1763-1827, Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, 1771-1851, William IV, King of Great Britain, 1765-1837, Jordan, Dorothy, 1761-1816, McMahon, John, approximately 1754-1817, Hertford, Francis Charles Seymour-Conway, Marquess of, 1777-1842, Melbourne, Peniston Lamb, Viscount, 1745-1828, Hanger, George, 1751?-1824, Barry, Augustus, Honble., 1773-1818, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, and Carlton House (London, England),
Subject (Topic):
Harlequin (Fictitious character), John Bull (Symbolic character), Garbage collecting, Thrones, Canopies, Columns, Adultery, Antlers, Cobblestone streets, Demons, Military uniforms, Baskets, Infants, Daggers & swords, Poor persons, Pickpockets, Beggars, Staffs (Sticks), Prostitutes, Soldiers, and British
