"Gaetan Vestris (right) giving a dancing lesson to a gigantic goose with a human head and long pigtail queue. They face each other in profile. Vestris stands with his legs together, chest thrown out, his arms curved. "Regardez-moi" was his characteristic admonition. On a stool behind the goose is an open book inscribed "Electrical E. E. L."; on the ground at its feet is another inscribed "The Torpedo. Dedicated to Ld------C------. My Lord, I take the Liberty------ The greatness of whose Parts are known. . ." . This indicates that the goose is Lord Cholmondeley (1749-1827), "The Torpedo, a Poem to the Electrical Eel addressed to Mr John Hunter Surgeon" and "Dedicated to . . . Lord Cholmondeley," 4th ed. 1777, was a coarse and scurrilous poem, three lines of which are, "What tho' Lord Ch--lm--d--ly may conceal A most enormous length of Eel Admir'd for Size and bone:"In the wall which forms the background are two sash-windows and a door (left) round which a grinning youth, probably a servant, is looking. On the wall are half length portraits: three in ovals of elderly ladies in profile, one of a clergyman, full-face, wearing a biretta, his left hand on a book. There is also a picture of Fox, with a fox's head, seated opposite Cholmondeley; they are throwing dice. Fox appears satisfied, the other clenches his fist and exclaims in anger. A devil is climbing on the top of the frame and holds out a claw to grab the head of Fox. On the picture are the words "A Nick by God". Like Fox, see BMSat 5972, Cholmondeley held a faro bank at Brooks's. G.E.C., 'Complete Peerage'."-- British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from text at bottom of image., Printmaker and date of publication from British Museum catalogue., and Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
England
Subject (Name):
Vestris, Gaëtan, 1729-1808, Cholmondeley, George James Cholmondeley, Marquess of, 1749-1827, and Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806
The Bow Street magistrate and campaigner against gambling, Sampson Wright, is shown seated at a table being assailed by a man who has entered the door on the right. On the left another man (probably meant to be John Bond, Wright's clerk) expresses alarm, and on the right a dismayed youth wipes away a tear
Description:
Title etched below image., Printmaker and date of publication from British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Mounted to 44 x 29 cm.
Publisher:
Publish'd by Bonde at the Thieftakers Office, Bow Street
Subject (Geographic):
England and London
Subject (Name):
Wright, Sampson, Sir, -1793 and Bond, John, active 1782
Subject (Topic):
Threats, Judges, Gambling, Interiors, and Clothing & dress
In the lower left corner stands Lord North, his right arm raised, delivering a speech while Cornwall, the Speaker, is looking at him from his chair in the upper left corner of the image. On the right, rising from a cloud, are Fox and Burke, both violently gesticulating in their attack on North. Below the figures of North and Fox are excerpts from their speeches attacking each other before forming coalition
Description:
Title from item., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., and Companion print to British Museum catalogue 6188.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
England and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797., Cornwall, Charles Wolfran, 1735-1789., Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806., and North, Frederick, Lord, 1732-1792.
Subject (Topic):
Public speaking, Clothing & dress, and Politics and government