"The King and Queen (left), seated under a canopy decorated with a crown and the royal arms, listen enraptured to a concert; the performers are arranged in a pyramid on the right. Numbers on the figures refer to notes engraved beneath the design. George III leans back, his hands clasped, eyes turned ecstatically upwards; he wears a laurel wreath and his head is surrounded by a star-shaped halo. The Queen sits upright with an eager expression, beating time; her hair and scraggy neck are covered with jewels (cf. BMSat 6978, &c). On the extreme left, and on the King's right, stands Pitt, very erect, a rattle in his right hand, blowing a whistle attached to a child's coral and bells. Behind the Queen are two ladies: '4', lean and ugly, holds an ear-trumpet to her ear; ['5'], who is stout, holds a parakeet on her finger. This group is: '1 Mr P------t'. '2 K------'. '3 Q------'. '4 Mad. Schw---gh--n' [Schwellenberg]. '5 Miss Jeff-----s' [Elizabeth Jefferyes or Jeffries, a Maid of Honour]. The royal party are on a circular carpet. On the roof of the canopy sits a demon holding up a purse in each hand, emblem of the supposed avarice of the King and Queen, a favourite subject with Gillray, cf. BMSat 7166, and see BMSat 7836, &c. Three demon hounds, inscribed 'G. R. Windsor', chase a realistically drawn fox (Fox), to whose tail is tied (by a ribbon inscribed 'Coalition') a pot with the features of North. The performers are arranged behind a low semicircular barrier. A stout man with a goat's head is asleep on the left, his hands clasped on his breast; from his pocket protrudes a paper inscribed 'Road to Wynnstay' (cf. BMSat 7068, &c). He is '6 Sr W. W. W-----ne' [Williams-Wynn], one of the founders of 'The Concert of Antient Music'. A demon child and an infant with butterfly-wings sit together on the barrier, singing from one book. A braying ass holding a book is '7 Mr Assb-----ge' (Ashbridge, a celebrated kettle-drummer). A bird of prey (? an owl) wearing a large cap stands on the barrier, a piece of music under its claws inscribed 'Anointed Solomon, King over all, E------'. She is '8 Mad. Mara.' Next '7' is seated a large ox supporting a music-book on his hoofs. He is 'J------h B--tes' (Joah Bates, originator (1776) and conductor of 'The Concert of Antient Music'). In the second row of performers (right to left) is a group (behind '7' and '8') of three fishwives: '10, D------ R------d'. the Duke of Richmond, with a basket of fish on his head, arms akimbo, is scolding '11, M-----s La--sd--e' (Marquis Lansdowne), while '12, Col. B--r-' (Barré), his eyes closed, joins in the dispute. An allusion to the altercation in the House of Lords over Richmond's proposed fortifications (see BMSat 7149 etc.). Next, realistically drawn, is '13 Sir J. M--why' (Mawbey), holding under his arm a squeaking pig whose tail he is twisting as if it were a musical instrument. Mawbey, as a distiller, was famous for keeping large quantities of hogs, see BMSats 5746, 7506, &c. Two lawyers sing from the same music; they are '14 Atty Genl' (Arden) and '15 Sollr Genl' (Macdonald). Behind their heads, and towards the apex of the pyramid, stand two judges facing each other, each holding a chimney-sweep's shovel and brush which they strike together in the manner of chimney-sweeps on May Day. They are '16. D--n--as' (Dundas) and '17. Ld L--ghb--gh' (Loughborough). The former's shovel is decorated with a thistle, the latter's with a man hanging from a gibbet, with the date '1745' and 'Kenn Com' in allusion to the Jacobites executed on Kennington Common, one of whom was Sir John Wedderburn. The apex of the pyramid is '18. Ch--n--ll--r', Thurlow, standing with a fierce expression; he holds up a pair of birch-rods above the bare posteriors of two terrified boys who serve as kettle-drums. Two squalling and fighting cats hang from the ceiling by ribbons attached to their tails. Beneath the design is engraved: '------Monarchs, who with Rapture wild, Hear their own Praise with Mouths of gaping Wonder, And control each Crotchet of the Birth-day Thunder. Peter Pindar.' The satire illustrates this and other passages from 'Ode upon Ode', which attack Pitt for obsequiousness to the King, and the King and Queen for their parsimony in attending the Concerts of Antient Music as subscribers instead of having concerts at their palace: '- Monarchs, who with oeconomic Fury Force all the tuneful World to Tot'n'am Lane.' Mawbey is mentioned: 'Strains! that Sir Joseph Mawbey deem'd divine, Sweet as the Quavers of his fattest Swine.' Wynn also: 'The sleek Welsh Deity who Music knows- The Alexander of the Tot'n'am Troops.' Richmond is mentioned: 'Mad as his Military Grace For fortifying ev'ry Place . . .' The cats: 'How like the Notes of Cats, a vocal Pair.'"--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from item., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., Later state, with numbers and explanatory notes, hairs on the queen's face and further stippling on the king's face., Publication date inferred from watermark., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Temporary local subject terms: Allusion to Sir John Wedderburn, 1704-1746? -- Chimney sweep's implements -- Singing lawyers -- Squeking pigs -- Fighting cats -- Dispute over Richmond's fortifications -- Child demons -- Ribbon of coalition -- Circular carpets -- Royal canopies -- Demon hounds -- Royal parsimony -- Birds: paraket -- Owls -- Kensington Common -- Literature: allusion to Peter Pindar's Ode upon ode -- Concerts: Antient music, 1787 -- Music: Serenata 'Solomon' by William Boyce -- Emblems -- Allusion to Jacobites -- Children: bous a kettle drums -- Richmond as a fishwoman -- Music books -- Performers in pyramid shape -- Star-shaped haloes -- Birch rods -- Toys: coral and bells -- Cherubs., Watermark: R A 1801 on the left side of sheet; fleur-de-lis on the right side., Matted to 56 x 71 cm., and Verso of former mount (49 x 60 cm), now laid in, with image in reverse of La belle assemblee.
Publisher:
Pub'd May 10th, 1787 by S.W. Fores, Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820, Charlotte, consort of George III, King of Great Britain, 1744-1818, Pitt, William, 1759-1806, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, North, Frederick, Lord, 1732-1792, Williams-Wynn, Watkin, Sir, 1749-1789, Mara, Gertrud Elisabeth, 1749-1833, Richmond, Charles Lennox, 3d Duke of, 1735-1806, Lansdowne, William Petty, Marquis of, 1737-1805, Mawbey, Joseph, Sir, 1730-1798, Alvanley, Richard Pepper Arden, Baron, 1745-1804, Macdonald, Archibald, Sir, 1747-1826, Melville, Henry Dundas, Viscount, 1742-1811, Rosslyn, Alexander Wedderburn, Earl of, 1733-1805, Thurlow, Edward Thurlow, Baron, 1731-1806, Schwellenberg, Elizabeth Juliana, ca 1728-1797, Jefferyes, Elizabeth, active 1787-1791, Ashbridge, John, -1799, Bates, Joah, 1741-1799, and Barré, Isaac, 1726-1802
