Germans eating sour-krout [graphic]Gillray, James, 1756-1815, printmaker[7 May 1803]eng"Five Germans seated at a round table, gormandize savagely on cabbage and sausages. Three are grossly fat and coarse-featured and plebeian; one of these (r.) has tucked the table-cloth round his neck (cf. BMSat 8145). A lean military officer sits in back view plying spoon and fork with elbows raised; a lean dog laps from his plate, one paw on his knee the other on the table. Cocked hat and sword are on the ground beside him. A thin and elderly man of more polished appearance puts down his head to the mound of greenery on his plate, which he shovels up with spoon and fork; his knife lies on the table-cloth. His hat and gold-headed cane are under his stool. A fat cook enters (l.) carrying a large steaming dish piled high with sauerkraut and sausages. On the table are a 'Vinegar' bottle and fragments from over-full plates. On the wall are a map of 'The Mouths of the Rhine', showing the 'German Ocean'; an oval bust portrait of 'Arch-Duke Charles' [see BMSat 8835], with a gross profile resembling that given by Gillray to the Duke of Clarence; a picture of a row of pigs whose heads emerge from sties to feed in a trough. On the floor are large tankards, a broken pipe, a pile of used plates which a cat is licking, a 'Bill of Fare - 1st Course Sour Krout - 2d Course Sour Krout - 3d Course Sour Krout - Desert Sour Krout.' Tankards and plates are inscribed 'Weyler Castle Street.'"--British Museum online catalogueTitle etched below image.