Five women stand full-length most facing the viewer and exhibiting five styles of dress, as indicated in the words etched below each figure: A la Turk (Turkish) with a turban and oriental dress with Turkish trousers and bare breasts; A la Grec (Greek) with a high-waisted dress and feathered turban; A la Cité (Parisian) similar to the preceding woman but a different effect because the woman is short and balloon-shaped and wears a watch and seals from her bust; A la St. James, is shown with her back to the viewer, wearing a very large turban with two aigretts resembling stiffened brush of a fox; and, finally, A la St. Giles, a stout, busty woman in profile looking left, wearing a quilted petticoat and apron, arms crossed below her bare breasts
Description:
Title etched below image. and Publisher's advertisement following imprint: NB. folios of caracatures [sic] lent out for the evening.
Publisher:
Pubd. March 23, 1796, by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly, the corner of Sackville Street
Opposite page 214. New London spy, or, A twenty-four hours ramble through the bills of mortality.
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
"A courtesan stands at a wash-tub, washing her last shift. She wears a cap over ringlets in curl-papers and a tattered petticoat, a shawl covers her naked shoulders. The room is squalid, with plaster falling from the bricks. Across the fireplace stockings hang on a string to dry. The corner of a bed appears on the right. On the table by the wash-tub is a small gin tankard. Under it is a pair of stays. A cat tries to reach a (broken) plate of cheese on a chair. On the floor, beside a fashionable high-crowned hat, lies a ballad: 'How happy were my days till now...'. Papers are thrust under the vertical bar of the casement window, one inscribed 'Admit Two to the Boxes'. Probably an imitation of Gillray's 'The Whores Last Shift', see British Museum Satires No. 5604."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark on left edge., Plate numbered "626" in lower left corner., Folded to 31.3 x 25.5 cm., and Bound in opposite page 214 in a copiously extra-illustrated copy of: King, R. The new London spy, or, A twenty-four hours ramble through the bills of mortality. London : Printed for J. Cooke [and 3 others], [1771?].
Publisher:
Printed for & sold by Carington Bowles, No. 69 St. Paul's Church Yard, London
Subject (Topic):
Courtesans, Interiors, Wash tubs, Fireplaces, Hosiery, Corsets, and Cats
