"Ritson stands at a desk in profile to the Ieft, writing in a large book, both pages headed 'Common Place'. His finger- and toe-nails are talons; he dips his pen in an ink-stand inscribed 'Gall', and has written: 'Moses an Impostor the prophets old Cloaths Men of Judæa Warburton a fool Dr Percy a Liar Warton an infamous Liar a pipeer [Ritson adopted a system of spelling chiefly characterized by a duplication of the letter e. 'D.N.B.'] better than a parson'. He wears a tightly buttoned overcoat and a top-hat; his toes project through broken shoes. From his pocket projects a pamphlet: 'The Atheist's pocket Companion.' He stands on a slab of (damaged) papers headed 'Dr Percy's Antient Balla[ds]'. his feet is a large open book; on one page is a half length portrait of Thomas Warton stabbed through with a knife and fork; on the other, 'History of English Poetry'. The room is filled with heavy folio volumes and vegetable products; there is a small window with cracked panes. A cow (head only visible) munches at a basket of large leaves beside a paper: 'Bill of Fare \ Nettle Soup \ Sour Crout \ Horse Beans \ Onions Leeks'. On a top shelf an emaciated cat, heavily chained, strains in vain towards two rats who nibble a bunch of candles; beside it is an open book: 'Abstinence from animal Food a moral duty'. Below, 'The Bible' slants across a gap in the book-shelf labelled 'Old Romances'. On Ritson's desk (left) is a pile of books on which squats a frog; on it vegetables are heaped."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Impiger iracundus, inexorabilis acer
Description:
Title from British Museum catalogue., Signed with the initials of James Sayers., One line of Latin verse below image: Impiger iracundus, inexorabilis acer [Horace, Ars Poetica]., One line of Greek text below Latin verse., Four lines of English text above imprint: Fierce meagre pale no commentator's friend. Purs. Lit. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the Earth ..., Temporary local subject terms: Ink well -- 'Common Place' -- Iron gall ink., 1 print : etching and aquatint on wove paper ; plate mark 26.6 x 20.5 cm, on sheet 28.3 x 21.3 cm., and Mounted on leaf 80 of James Sayers's Folio album of 144 caricatures.
Publisher:
Published by H. Humphrey
Subject (Name):
Ritson, Joseph, 1752-1803
Subject (Topic):
Desks, Writing materials, Books, Vegetables, Cows, Cats, Rats, Frogs, Vegetarians, and British
Drawings B87 no. 30 Framed, shelved in Object Room Bin 5
Image Count:
1
Abstract:
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
Description:
Title from local card catalogue. and Published stipple engraving: no. 5803 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 5.
"A copy by Rowlandson after the 1774 Bunbury print, 'The hopes of the family - an admission at the university', a satire on a socially aspirational family: a youth is being examined by a tutor for admission to Cambridge university; the tutor, in academic robes, is seated at a table pointing at a large volume resting beside a globe; the youth stands counting on his fingers while his eager father, wearing countryman's boots, urges him on; on the left a woman, probably the tutor's housekeeper, holds two further volumes, and on the right an elegant undergraduate stands smiling; on the wall behind are portraits of "Dr Allcock" and a woman, a Roman bust with turned down mouth on the lintel above the door, and a frame with the plan and elevation of a building."
Description:
Title supplied by cataloger, based on that of the print on which this design is based., Printmaker and date of publication from British Museum online cat., registration no.: 2006,U.1348., Restrike. Date of printing based on watermark., A reduced copy of no. 4727 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 4., Similar to and perhaps related to a series of small copies by Rowlandson of earlier Bunbury satires, published in 1803 by R. Ackermann. See Rowlandson the caricaturist / by Joseph Grego. London, Chatto and Windus, 1880, v. ii, p. 42-43., Watermark: J. Whatman 1828., Imperfect; artist's signature erased from sheet., and A border enclosing the design and shading to the lower portion of the design added in pencil.
"A copy by Rowlandson after the 1774 Bunbury print, 'The hopes of the family - an admission at the university', a satire on a socially aspirational family: a youth is being examined by a tutor for admission to Cambridge university; the tutor, in academic robes, is seated at a table pointing at a large volume resting beside a globe; the youth stands counting on his fingers while his eager father, wearing countryman's boots, urges him on; on the left a woman, probably the tutor's housekeeper, holds two further volumes, and on the right an elegant undergraduate stands smiling; on the wall behind are portraits of "Dr Allcock" and a woman, a Roman bust with turned down mouth on the lintel above the door, and a frame with the plan and elevation of a building."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title supplied by cataloger, based on that of the earlier print from which this design was copied., Printmaker and date of publication from British Museum online catalogue, registration no.: 2006,U.1348., A reduced copy of no. 4727 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 4., Similar to and perhaps related to a series of small copies by Rowlandson of earlier Bunbury satires, published in 1803 by R. Ackermann. See Rowlandson the caricaturist / by Joseph Grego. London, Chatto and Windus, 1880, v. ii, p. 42-43., On same sheet: Miseries of London., and Mounted to 56 x 37 cm.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Topic):
Dogs, Families, Social mobility, Students, Teachers, Teaching, and Portraits
"In the upper part of the design the Recording Angel (or Truth) draws or engraves on an oval shield which she rests on a pedestal. On it are depicted French soldiers bayoneting defenceless Turks (apparently adapted from BMSat 10062). In the background are the head of a Sphinx, and clouds. Against the pedestal on which Truth stands rests a picture, filling the lower part of the design. Napoleon kneels on a rock, extending imploring arms towards Nilus, a nude and muscular figure seated on rock from which water gushes. Nilus veils and averts his head. In the background are pyramids and palm-trees."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Frontispiece, Britannicus to Buonaparte : an heroic epistle
Description:
Title devised by cataloger; varying form of title from British Museum catalogue. and Frontispiece to the second edition of Britannicus to Buonaparte, an heroic epistle, with notes / by Henry Tresham.
Publisher:
Publish'd Novr. 1st, 1803, for the author by I. Hatchard, No. 199 Piccadilly, London
Title supplied by cataloger, based on that of an earlier print after Bunbury from which this design was copied., Date of publication from unverified data in local card catalog record., Sheet trimmed within plate mark on three edges., A reduced copy in reverse of no. 4918 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 5., and Watermark: J. Whatman Turkey Mill.
