Prime bang up at Hackney, or, A peep at the balloon 12th Augt. [graphic]

"A plebeian crowd, much caricatured, cheers the majestic ascent of a balloon. On the right is part of an old-fashioned gabled building with a large projecting sign, 'Mermaid': a mermaid emerges from the sea holding up a comb and a wine-bottle. Two men and a woman sit on the beam of the sign, two other men climb up to it. In the foreground a fat woman has fallen over a sow and her litter. A sailor carries astride his shoulders a stout woman, who waves frantically. The roofs of coaches are crowded with cheering spectators. Others wave from distant roofs and from the square tower of Hackney Church. Two tiny aeronauts wave flags from the car of the balloon, which is vertically striped, with cross-bands round its circumference inscribed 'G. P. W', a crown, and 'P R'."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state