"The King, dressed as a mandarin, falls back fainting on a settee, attended by three stout ladies and General Bloomfield, all in Chinese dress. Behind is a slanting cloud of smoke, inscribed: 'The Bill is lost through your favorite Clause.' He murmurs: "Curse the Bishops, Oh I faint, I faint, I shall never survive this." Bloomfield, identified by a paper in his pocket: 'The Farmers Boy' [cf. British Museum Satires No. 13237], bends towards him, saying, "aye that Cursed Adultery Clause has done the Business--"; he proffers a glass of 'Coniac'. A lady supports each arm, holding a bottle of 'Eau de Col[ogne]' to his nose; one, in back view, is (?) Lady Hertford; the other, Lady Conyngham, says: "Rouse my Love, & we will go, where the Rocks of Coral grow,! let us quit this Religious Country & go to Hanover." The third (? Mrs. Quentin) throws up her arms in despair. A huge Chinese jar (left) is decorated with a dragon; carved dragons or monsters support the sofa, and a table (right) on which is a decanter of 'Curacoa'."--British Museum online catalogue and A Chinese man falls back fainting onto a settee, attended by three ladies and a man all in Chinese dress; representing the King's anguish at the bill (which condemned the Queen's adultery and reduced her rights) being thrown out
Description:
Title etched below image., Attributed to William Heath in the British Museum online catalogue, registration no: 1935,0522.12.138., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Watermark: J. Whatman 1819., Mounted to 58 x 39 cm., Mounted (with one other print) on leaf 21 in volume 2 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair.", and Figure of "George IV" identified in pencil at bottom of sheet. Typed extract of twenty-four lines from the British Museum catalogue description is pasted opposite (on verso of preceding leaf).
Publisher:
Pub. Nov. 15, 1820, by S.W. Fores, 41 Picadilly [sic]
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain and Grande-Bretagne
Subject (Name):
George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Hertford, Isabella Anne Ingram-Seymour-Conway, Marchioness of, 1760-1834, Conyngham, Elizabeth Conyngham, Marchioness, -1861, Quentin, Georgina, and Bloomfield, Benjamin Bloomfield, Baron, 1768-1846
Subject (Topic):
Chinese, Fashion, House furnishings, National characteristics, Chinese, Chinois, Ameublement, Ethnic stereotypes, Mistresses, Sofas, Loss of consciousness, and Alcoholic beverages
