"Portrait, half-length to right, with head turned to look towards front; wearing a long wig, loose cloak above armour, and lace collar; his right forearm resting on frame, holding a book open with thumb between the pages; in rectangular frame on pedestal with convex front; coat of arms and books in foreground, one on right lettered "Histor[y] of Engla[nd]"; after a drawing by Vertue."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from text in image. and Place of publication taken from printmaker's known place of activity.
The image is a copy of Hogarth's Midnight modern Conversation: A scene in a paneled room (in a public house?) with eleven men seated around a table in the center of which is a large punch-bowl decorated with Chinese figures. Wine bottles litter the floor and piled high on the mantelpiece. In the right corner a chamber pot overflows. One man in the foreground has fallen backwards off his chair; as he lands prostrate on the floor, one of his intoxicated companions staggers toward him, oblivious to the fact that his wine is spilling out over the prostrate man's head. The longcase clock shows the time as 4:00. See Paulson for suggested identities of the men depicted
Alternative Title:
Midnight modern conversation
Description:
Title engraved below image. Text etched on separate plate and mounted below., Poem in four columns: Sacred to thee, permit this, lay, Thy labour, Hogarth, to display! ..., Cf. Paulson, R. Hogarth's graphic works (3rd ed.), no. 128., Ms. note in pencil in Steevens's hand on separate sheet to the right of this print., and On page 65 in volume 1.
Title from text above image., Eleven lines of text below image: Bristol was call'd by [the] Britons (or Welch) Caer Oder & in old writings Caer Brito, by [the] Saxons Brighiston ..., Key to the numbered churches, buildings, and other features etched in lower right corner of plate., and Plate numbered "7" in upper right corner.
