A satire of a Gretna Green marriage, taking place in front of smithy's shop. Erskine, disguised in woman's dress with a huge feathered bonnet over a barrister's wig, holds the right hand of a demure-looking woman, modishly dressed and apparently pregnant. He holds a paper: 'Breach of Promise'. With them are three young children. The smith wears Highland dress; he holds a red-hot bar on the anvil and raises his hammer, saying, "I shall make a good thing of this Piece at last." Erskine says: "I have bother'd the Courts in London many times, I'll now try my hand at the Scotch Bar--as to Miss C-- she may do her worst since I have got my Letters back." The woman says: "Now who dare say, Blacks the White of my Eye." In the background (right) a young woman rushes down a slope towards the smithy, shouting, "Oh Stop Stop Stop, false Man, I will yet seek redress tho you have got back your letters--" Beside her is a sign-post pointing 'To Gretna Green'. A little boy with Erskine's features, wearing tartan trousers, stands on tip-toe to watch the smith; on the ground beside him is a toy (or emblem), a cock on a pair of breeches. A little girl stands by her mother nursing a doll fashionably dressed as a woman, but with Erskine's profile. Another boy with a toy horse on a string stands in back view watching 'Miss C'. Behind the smith is the furnace; on the wall hang many rings: 'Rings to fit all Hands.'
Alternative Title:
More legitimates
Description:
Title etched below image. and Printed on paper watermarked "1818".
Publisher:
Pubd. Feby. 4th, 1819, by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly & 312 Oxford Street
Subject (Geographic):
Scotland, Gretna Green, Gretna Green (Scotland), and Gretna Green.
Subject (Name):
Erskine, Thomas Erskine, Baron, 1750-1823, Erskine, Sarah Buck, Baroness, -1825, and Erskine, Thomas Erskine, Baron, 1750-1823.
Subject (Topic):
Elopement, Breach of promise, Elopements, Ethnic stereotypes, Forge shops, Metalworking, Furnaces, Anvils, and Hammers
"A thin elderly man proferring his wares, holding a long stick tucked under one arm, rubbing a short ribbed staff against the hilt with the other to spark a fire, looking to left, lit from the right."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Feu sans fumée, ou exellentes pierres a fusil
Description:
Titles in English and French etched below image., Printmaker and publication information from first plate in series., Ninth plate from: Twelve London cries done from the life by P. Sandby. London, 1760., and Plate numbered "9" beneath lower right corner of image.
Weiditz, Hans, approximately 1495-approximately 1536, printmaker
Published / Created:
[approximately 1559]
Call Number:
Print00922
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Description:
Title from text in lower margin., From: Francisci Petrarche, des hochweisen fürtrefflichen Poeten und Oratorn, zwei Trostbücher, Von Artznei und Rath beyde im guten und widerwertigen Glück, Frankfurt am Main: Egenolff, 1559., Image is from Cap. CXI, page XCVII verso., and This electronic record is derived from historic data and may not reflect our current information. Review and updating of records is ongoing.
