Pitt, leaping through the air and surrounded by demons, pursues (left to right) fleeing swine with human heads. In his right hand he flourishes a scourge with three weighted lashes, two inscribed 'Powder Tax', the third 'Wig Tax'. The swine wear wigs or have long hair. In his left hand he holds a sceptre terminating in a spike with which he prods a pig who turns round to snarl. Two of the attendant demons breathe fire and hold firebrands. A small demon prods with a triden, and seizes the tail of, a large pig who leaps through the air, its wig flying from its head. Another demon rides a pig, flourishing a scourge. Four birds (right) fly away. Pitt is grotesquely caricatured as are the heads of the swine
Alternative Title:
Hell broke loose, Billy and his gang working the swine
Description:
Title from text below image., Date of publication from British Museum catalogue., Signed at bottom of image with artist W. O'Keeffe's monogram., and A satire on the Powder tax and on Burke's phrase "the swinish multitude".
Publisher:
Pubd. by P. Roberts, 28 Middle-row, Holborn
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain.
Subject (Name):
Pitt, William, 1759-1806
Subject (Topic):
Hair powder, Taxation, Taxatiion, Demons, and Swine
"A domestic interior. A fat and ugly citizen, wearing old-fashioned dress with a small unpowdered wig, stands on the hearth-rug (right), his back to the fire; he is meditatively reading the 'Gazette', headed: 'New Taxes', and 'Bankru[pts]', his left hand plunged in his breeches pocket. Behind him on the chimney-piece is a pair of scales for weighing guineas (see BMSat 5128). His wife, bald-headed, ugly, and stout, leans back in an arm-chair, her hands raised in protest at an unpowdered wig which a grotesquely thin and ragged French hairdresser (left) proffers obsequiously. A fashionably dressed young man with cropped hair looks with imbecile surprise at his reflection in an oval mirror over the chimney-piece. His mouth is half-covered by his swathed neckcloth, he wears a short spencer (see BMSat 8192) over a sparrow-tail coat, and half-boots. A young woman with over-dressed but unpowdered (red) hair looks with dismay at her reflection in a mirror which she has snatched from the wall. On the wall is an oval bust portrait of 'Charles 2d', his tiny head framed in an immense powdered wig."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Frugal family saving the guinea
Description:
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Temporary local subject terms: Scales -- Pictures amplifying subject: portrait of Charles II in a powdered wig -- Newspapers: 'Gazette' -- Male dress: spencers -- Sparrow-tailed coats.
Publisher:
Pubd. March 10th, 1795, by H. Humphrey, No. 37 New Bond Street
John Bull lies on his back in bed, his mouth gaping; Pitt, a goblin creature, sits on his chest in profile to the right, holding above his upturned head a loaf inscribed '13 Pence'. Pitt has a huge head, much caricatured, with starting eyeballs; his hair stands up and the bag of his queue, inscribed 'Taxes', flies out behind him. Through a casement window (left) looks a fantastic French republican, with bulging eyeballs and fang-like teeth, glaring at John Bull; from his neck hangs the model of a guillotine. Behind his head is a waning moon. Beside him are the words: 'Republic War and Famine for Ever.' Beneath the bed is a chamber-pot inscribed 'John Bull'; beside it is a chair on which stands a candle
Alternative Title:
Nightmare
Description:
Title etched below image., A satire, on the burderns of war and dearth in 1795, alluding to Henry Fuseli's "The Nightmare"., Tentatively attributed to West in the British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Publisher's advertisement following imprint: Folios of caracatures [sic] lent out for the evening., and Watermark: Strasburg lily with initials G R below.
Publisher:
Pub. Augst. 13, 1795, by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly, the corner of Sackville St.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain. and France
Subject (Name):
Pitt, William, 1759-1806
Subject (Topic):
John Bull (Symbolic character), Hair powder, Taxation, History, Foreign public opinion, British, Chamber pots, and Demons
