Title from text below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires.
"Gaetan Vestris (right) giving a dancing lesson to a gigantic goose with a human head and long pigtail queue. They face each other in profile. Vestris stands with his legs together, chest thrown out, his arms curved. "Regardez-moi" was his characteristic admonition. On a stool behind the goose is an open book inscribed "Electrical E. E. L."; on the ground at its feet is another inscribed "The Torpedo. Dedicated to Ld------C------. My Lord, I take the Liberty------ The greatness of whose Parts are known. . ." . This indicates that the goose is Lord Cholmondeley (1749-1827), "The Torpedo, a Poem to the Electrical Eel addressed to Mr John Hunter Surgeon" and "Dedicated to . . . Lord Cholmondeley," 4th ed. 1777, was a coarse and scurrilous poem, three lines of which are, "What tho' Lord Ch--lm--d--ly may conceal A most enormous length of Eel Admir'd for Size and bone:"In the wall which forms the background are two sash-windows and a door (left) round which a grinning youth, probably a servant, is looking. On the wall are half length portraits: three in ovals of elderly ladies in profile, one of a clergyman, full-face, wearing a biretta, his left hand on a book. There is also a picture of Fox, with a fox's head, seated opposite Cholmondeley; they are throwing dice. Fox appears satisfied, the other clenches his fist and exclaims in anger. A devil is climbing on the top of the frame and holds out a claw to grab the head of Fox. On the picture are the words "A Nick by God". Like Fox, see BMSat 5972, Cholmondeley held a faro bank at Brooks's. G.E.C., 'Complete Peerage'."-- British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from text at bottom of image., Printmaker and date of publication from British Museum catalogue., and Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
England
Subject (Name):
Vestris, Gaëtan, 1729-1808, Cholmondeley, George James Cholmondeley, Marquess of, 1749-1827, and Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806
"Groups of dancers practise figures of a cotillion in a ballroom with a small musician's gallery supported on pillars, in which are an oboist, two violinists, and a harpist, playing intently and paying no attention to a man who stands below, with outstretched arms, shouting directions. The room is lit by candles in wall brackets. In the centre of the balcony is an oval medallion: a man plays a lyre and three nude nymphs dance. Several of the dancers hold papers of directions headed 'Cotilion', with a description of figures '1' to '8'. The scene is one of confusion. On the left persons stand inspecting the dancers. One man only is dressed as a blood of the period with cropped hair, high-collared waistcoat, 'hanging collar', and long breeches (see British Museum Satires No. 8040, &c). He stands (left) superciliously inspecting the dancers through an eye-glass."--British Museum online catalogue and The pictures in the image amplify the subject: Nymphs dancing to music of lyre
Alternative Title:
Rehearsing a cotillion
Description:
Title from text below image., Imperfect; sheet trimmed within plate mark and mutilated on lower edge with partial loss of imprint statement. Missing text supplied from impression in the British Museum., Mounted on modern secondary support., Watermark., and Figures identified by ms. notes in pencil at bottom of sheet.
"Scene in an assembly room. A mountainously fat woman stands fanning herself, as she talks to a stout man in old-fashioned dress. She says: "Dear me it is perdigus Hot! which would you advise me to do take a Rubber or Dance." He answers: "Dance first! Madam, and take the Rubber afterwards." A fashionably dressed but vulgar-looking man stands by, looking quizzically at the lady. In the background (left) is a high musicians' gallery, and below it four people dance a (?) country dance. There is a cut-glass chandelier. Through an ornate arched doorway four people are seen playing cards."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Salutary conduct for corpulent dancers
Description:
Title etched below image., Argus is a pseudonym for Charles Williams., Date of publication from British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed to plate mark leaving thread margins., and Watermark: Cassell.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Topic):
Obesity, Fans (Accessories), Dance, and Chandeliers
"The Duchess of St. Albans, immensely fat, florid, and bejewelled, and a stout elderly naval officer wearing loose wide trousers, and apparently doing hornpipe steps, his hands on his hips, dance side by side with rollicking abandon. The others of the set: one man and two ladies on the left and one lady and two men on the right dance rigidly erect, and watch the central pair with hauteur; the men are dandies, the women slim and fashionable. The duchess has a swirling paradise-plume in her towering loops of hair, above tossing ringlets."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Run neighbours, run, St. Albans is quadrilling it
Description:
Title etched below image., Print signed using William Heath's device: A man with an umbrella., British Museum curator's note: The naval officer is (unconvincingly) identified by E. Hawkins as Sir George Warrender (1782-1849), a Huskissonite M.P. who was never in the navy; he was a Lord of the Admiralty 1812-22; he appears, in back view, in a "Sketch of a Ball at Almack's, 1815" (Gronow, 'Reminiscences', 1892, ii, frontispiece). Perhaps Lord Amelius Beauclerk (1771-1806), her husband's uncle. Cf. 'Croker Papers', 1884, ii. 200., and Watermark: 1827.
Publisher:
Pub. by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket
Subject (Geographic):
England
Subject (Name):
St. Albans, Harriot Mellon, Duchess of, 1777?-1837, Beauclerk, Amelius, 1771-1846, and Warrender, George, 1782-1849
Subject (Topic):
Clothing & dress, Dandies, British, Obesity, Balls (Parties), and Dance
"One of a set of prints on the marriage of the Prince of Wales, see BMSat 6924, &c. Mrs. Fitzherbert (left) and the Prince of Wales dance; she holds out her apron in her right hand, his left arm is raised as if dancing a Scots reel; he appears about to take her left hand. The musicians are Burke, Weltje, and Hanger: Weltje, wearing a hat, sits (left) on a low stool, beating a pistol upon a warming-pan which he holds between his knees. Burke stands behind him holding a gridiron in the manner of a violin and with a pair of tongs as bow. He says, "Oh Burn the Pan it is not Beautifull". Weltje answers, "Damme but 'tis Sublime" (one of many allusions to Burke's book). George Hanger stands (right) beating the heavy end of his bludgeon on a salt-box; he is stamping and dancing, his hat is on the ground at his feet. Through an aperture in the wall behind his head is seen an ornate bed, decorated with triple ostrich plumes; behind the pillows is a cross. Two pictures, both inscribed 'Hamlet', are on the wall: on the left the Lord Chamberlain with his wand (Lord Salisbury as Polonius) approaches George III, saying, "I will be brief your noble son is mad". On the right Laertes addresses Ophelia, saying: "He may not as inferior persons do carve for himself for on his choice depends the sanity [sic] & health of the whole state." On the floor, in the foreground, lie two books and a paper inscribed respectively, 'Bold Stroke for a Wife' [Mrs. Centlivre]; 'Clandestine Marriage' [Colman and Garrick]; and 'I'll have a Wife of my own'. Beneath the title is engraved, 'As performed at the Theatre Royal, C------n [Carlton] House for the Benifit of the Widow Wadman'. A patterned carpet completes the design."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Follies of a night
Description:
Title from item below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Temporary local subject terms: Allusion to Edmund Burke's On the sublime and the beautiful -- Parody of Shakespeare's Hamlet -- Salt-box Pictures amplify subject -- Catholic Church -- Travesties., and Watermark in center of sheet: J. Whatman.
Publisher:
Published 1st April 1786, by S.W. Fores at the Caricature Warehouse, No. 3 Piccadilly
Subject (Geographic):
Scotland.
Subject (Name):
George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Fitzherbert, Maria Anne, 1756-1837, Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797, Hanger, George, 1751?-1824, and Salisbury, James Cecil, Marquess of, 1748-1823
Subject (Topic):
Chandeliers, Cooking utensils, Dance, Firearms, Floor coverings, Marriage, Military uniforms, British, Musical instruments, and Sofas
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Signed "M." in lower right corner., Temporary local subject terms: Election music: 'Ancient British music' -- Marrowbones -- Cleavers -- Election favors -- Butcher's steels., Watermark in center of sheet: J Whatman., and Mounted to 26 x 36 cm.
Publisher:
Pub. by W. Holland, No. 66 Drury Lane
Subject (Geographic):
England and London.
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Cavendish, Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, 1757-1806, and Great Britain. Parliament
Subject (Topic):
Elections, 1784, Butchers, Canvassing, Chimney sweeps, Dance, Minuet, Political elections, and Politics and government
Depicts on the right the German dancing master Jansen playing the fiddle, as his pupil faces him with raised right arm and hat in left hand, a smaller youth standing sleepily on the left
Alternative Title:
Maitre de ballet allemand
Description:
Title etched below image. and Printmaker from British Museum catalogue.
Publisher:
Pubd. April 5th, 1782, by H. Humphrey, No. 18 New Bond Street
Broadside ballad by Charles Dibdin, with an etched headpiece showing the interior of a tavern with a one-legged pensioner holding a beer tankard decorated with an anchor (center), singing the song, while a maid holds a mug to another who has lost both arms (left). On the right two men play a game (draughts?) at a table. On the wall behind them is another broadside 'Poor Jack', also about a sailor with words by Dibdin. On the windows at the entrance of the tavern are postings advertising rum and gin. Several are dressed in the uniform of Greenwich pensioners
Description:
Title from letterpress caption title below image and above verses: " ... written and composed by Dibdin for his entertainment called The oddities.", Lettered with the artist's initials in the one-legged pensioner's hat and with his full name on the edge of the table on the right., Publisher's advertisement at the bottom of sheet: Just published, by Fores, No. 3 Piccadilly, where may be had, price 6d. plain and 1 s. coloured, The Patient Parson Forgetting His Text, or The Hogs in the Ale-Cellar, Poll and My Partner Joe, Bachelors' Hall, Let Us All Be Unhappy Together, The Barber's Wedding, Mrs. Thrale's Three Warnings, and many other esteemed songs and pieces, by Dibding and others. In Fores's exhibition may be seen the compleatest collection of caricature prints and drawings in Europe. Admittance one shilling., Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires., Sheet trimmed to plate mark on top and sides of illustration., and Watermark: fleur-de-lis.
