"A number of men with asses' heads sit round a table signing a petition. They are upon a platform in a ramshackle room; a ladder rests against its left corner; on the ladder appear the head and shoulders of Fox in back view; he holds strings attached to the noses of the asses. The ass seated at the head of the table (left) hands down to him a 'Petition to the House of Commons for Delay [signed] Ign[or]amus'. An ass holds a long document, the 'Commercial Treaty with France', which falls across the table on to the ground; on his right shoulder an ass rests his head; another on the left sleeps with his head resting on a pile of books on the table. A spectacled ass writes busily; next him, at the end of the table (right), an ass leans back asleep. The nose of a braying ass appears through a door on the extreme right. Behind the table an ass places a notice on the wall: 'Chamber of Commerce at a Meeting held the 10th of February Resolved'. This partly covers another bill: 'Chamber [of] Commerce at a Meeting 9th Decr 1786 Resolv[ed]'. On a shelf (left) a figure of Mercury with a wooden leg dances, flourishing a caduceus; the right hand is broken off; behind it part of a vase is visible inscribed 'Wedgwood'. Figure and vase are on a pedestal inscribed 'Ex Quovis Ligno non fit Mercurius'. A casement window with broken panes and a raftered ceiling indicate the squalor of the room."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Assemblée des not-ables anglois and Assemblée des notables anglois
Description:
LewisWalpoleLibrary: Horace Walpole
Publisher:
Publd. the 14th Febry. 1787 by Thos. Cornell, Bruton Street
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain and France.
Subject (Name):
Wedgwood, Josiah, 1730-1795. and France.
Subject (Topic):
Politics and government, Foreign economic relations, Mercury (Roman deity), and Donkeys
"A bearded Jew (left) points out to Fox and North the high price of stocks; he holds out to North (right) a paper inscribed '3 Per Cents Consol done at 75 for ye next opening'. North holds out his hands in dismay. Fox stands between and behind them, looking gloomily at North. The Jew stands behind a counter on which hangs a paper, 'India Stock 162 Bank Stock 241 India Bonds 50 [ ? or 59] Prem. Navy & Victualg Bills Per Cent Discount Exchequer Bills Prem Per Cent Scrip'. At North's feet lies a paper headed 'Mr Sheridans Speech upon Mr Pitts Plan of Finance'. The background is the wall of a room with arched recesses or alcoves."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
The LewisWalpoleLibrary: Horace
Publisher:
Published 29th May 1786 by Thos. Cornell, Bruton Street
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, North, Frederick, Lord, 1732-1792, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816., and East India Company.
"An obese and gouty parson (left) reclines in an arm-chair, inspecting through an eye-glass a sucking-pig which a buxom maidservant brings in on a dish. She shows it to the clerk, who sits beside the parson, with a paper: 'An Estimate of the Tythes of this Parish'. The latter sniffs at the pig's snout. Two dogs eagerly fawn on the maid. Through the doorway (right) a lean yokel sourly scratches his head, waiting for the verdict on his pig. The parson's swathed leg is supported on a stool; beside him are a bottle and glass, a crutch and chamber-pot. On the wall is a picture of a group of church spires, suggesting that he is a pluralist, though the room is bare and old-fashioned."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
, see LewisWalpoleLibrary call no
Publisher:
Pub. Jan. 1, 1790, by S.W. Fores, N. 3 Piccadilly
Subject (Topic):
Chairs, Clergy, Clerks, Crutches, Dogs, Farmers -, Interiors, Religious dwellings, Servants, and Swine
An eagle facing right, wings slightly unfurled, head turned and looking back to left, beak slightly open; on a pedestal with a plaque describing how the statue had been dug up in the garden of the Boccapadugli family, near the Baths of Caracalla and was sold to Horace Walpole with the help of Horace Mann, the British Minister in Florence. At Strawberry Hill the eagle was displayed on a marble funerary altar, decorated with similar eagles
Alternative Title:
Vetus aquilae signum marmoreum and Marble eagle on a pedestal with a plaque
Volume 1, page 3. Etchings by Henry William Bunbury, Esq. and after his designs.
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
"Satire on a Cambridge student: a young man on horseback with a macaroni queue holding out a driving whip as if it is a lance and galloping to right; the horse is defecating; a hound runs beside them; in the distance on the right King's College Chapel."--British Museum online catalogue
"An exhibition in the 'Great Room' of the Horticultural Society, containing portraits of officials and caricatures of spectators; the exhibits embody political and other allusions. The three officials command the room from seats at a raised table, each with a sloping desk. The chairman, hammer in hand, sits between the Secretary and Assistant Secretary. His desk is inscribed: A most respectable Cauliflower always in order -. He is John Elliot, F.R.S. (1764-1829, Treasurer, and one of four Vice-Presidents; he often presided). On his right Joseph Sabine (1770-1837, Hon. Sec. of the Society 1816-30); on his desk: The friend of Maecenas--"arvum cælumq Sabinum non cessat laudare"--Hor. Epist. On Elliot's left, John Turner, Assistant Secretary, wearing spectacles: on his desk: An highly cultivated specimen requires Glass. The exhibits are on an oblong counter against and below that of the officials, and also on a slightly lower annexe to it, having a curved front which corresponds to the horse-shoe benches facing it. Immediately below the officials are four exhibits: [1] a miniature rocky mountain or crag on a dish, with mining apparatus projecting from its summit and having berried sprigs attached to it, labelled Vapor Vincit Omnia et Omnium. Round the rock is a scroll: Comparative Declension -- Mine -- Miner -- Minus -- New Lat Gr. The berries are placarded: The New Golden Drop or Marvel of Peru--a native of No-Mans land To be bought in the City -- only -- £500 pr leaf! Cheap as dirt & production beyond beleif. [2] A few ears of corn labelled Matchless Specimen stand in a blacking-bottle inscribed Rye Coffee By Act of Parliament -- Almighty Roasters!! - H H [Henry Hunt] Radical Corn Doctor--& General Polisher of Mankind. [3] A cannon-like brass cylinder projects horizontally from the back of a kettle, its muzzle being filled with a bunch of grapes; it is fixed to a stand inscribed Perkins's New Grape House Forced by Steam NB -- Warrented [sic] not to end in Smoke. Beside it is a second bunch of grapes; a poker leans against the kettle. [4] Two small squared pieces of wood ticketed: Specimens of American Acasia NB these Trees must not be too much exposed they require warmth & thrive best in a Register. The exhibits on the projecting table are of naturalistic fruit, with one exception: a basket inscribed Keen's Seedling A Hot Bed Plant contains a plump manikin (Kean), naked except for buskins and a head-dress like a strawberry, with a spray of leaves attached to it. He holds up a grinning mask decorated with antlers. This is ticketed NB Does not thrive in America. A bunch of grapes has the inscription: a bunch of Grapes from Lady Bacchus which upon Dissection will on a Moderate Computation afford 1/2 a grape & one stone to each man of taste -- NB Beware of Drunkenness & appoplexey. Two huge pears, placed like the Green Bags of BM Satires 13735, are in a dish inscribed Sure such a Pear -- was never seen. A giant apple: "A most Prodigious Pippin" -- Byron. Two plates of apples: Sundry Specimens of forbidden Fruit NB le Meilleur de son Espéce [sic]. The spectators [Footnote: Identifications by Reid are doubtful, and it is not always clear to whom they refer: they are here given in quotation marks.] are in the foreground, some standing over the exhibits, others on or beside the green-covered benches. Each has a punning caption in the lower margin. A dandy, 'Mr. West', stands on the extreme left, holding the head of a slim cane to his mouth; he is The Pink of Fashion or Dandy-Lion [cf. BM Satires 13029]. Next him sits Alderman Cox with antlers sprouting from his bald head; he clutches an umbrella and stares through an opera-glass at 'Keen's Seedling'. He is A variety of Horn-beam -- a double bearer (an allusion to his wife's two lovers). A gouty old man, frenzied with pain and rage, shouts at a dandified supercilious-looking fellow who plants the heel of his Hessian boot on his swollen toe; they are 'Mr Rogers' and 'Mr Wilbraham': A Passionflower in full bloom and A Species of Misletoe. Seated on the front bench in back view is a vast, shapeless, and plainly dressed woman, with a child, a small replica of herself, seated beside her; each has placed next her on the seat a flat broad-brimmed straw hat. They are A Bulb from Holland with Offset. A stout man fingers fruit, furtively stuffing a capacious pocket; he is A Monstrous Medler in full bearing ('Mr Richard Salisbury'). A dandy, out at elbows and with patched trousers, stands aggressively in back view: A Sprig of Nobility running to seed -mem-while in this state not to be trusted out of doors-if kept under lock & key it will receive the benefit of the Act [for the relief of debtors] ('Mr. Motheaux', i.e. John Motteux, d. 1843, a Vice-President of the Society, and very rich). On the seat behind him are two open books: Hortl Transtns Letters from Corresponding Mr-Mustard & Cress how to choose the seed-Essay on a Radish with highly finished Engravings. Another volume of the same: . . . On the Best mode of planting a-Pip &c. A grotesquely tall cavalry officer stands in profile to the left: A Scarlet Runner ('Captain Maxwell'), (? identification intended for the naval officer), more convincingly identified by E. Hawkins as Captain Scarlett (1799-1871). An ugly scowling fellow stands in profile to the left, with folded arms, grasping a stick with a knob carved in a portrait-head of himself: An English Crab-a Native of this Country. He is 'Dr Henderson', i.e. Alexander Henderson, M.D., 1780-1863, a Vice-President of the Society. Behind him stands a naval officer with an empty right sleeve, a patch of sticking-plaster on his forehead, and a fixed smile: Heart of Oak-with its timber lopp'd-little cultivated at present the old plants vegetate in the background. Identified by E. Hawkins as Murray Maxwell (see BM Satires 12999) whom he resembles apart from the sleeve; by Reid (improbably) as 'Lord Verulam'. He may stand for the brave but neglected naval officer, with attributes both of Nelson and Maxwell. On the extreme right a brandy-faced undergraduate with a gold-tasselled cap bestrides a bench as if on a horse, hands placed as if holding whip and reins: Hortus Cantab- propagated at Newmarket ('Mr Labouchere'; ? Henry Labouchere, 1798-1869, an Oxonian). On the pilastered wall are three pictures and a portrait bust: [1] A large picture of a burly man wearing a loin-cloth only, linked to three naked children by a root which they all gnaw. This is An Irish Potatoe Plant with young ones dressed in their Jackets after the fashion of the Country. [2] The portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, still belonging to the Society, realistically copied, with the title Hortus Siccus-The Flower of the Flock. [3] A bust of George IV as a Roman Emperor, resembling the Coriolanus of BM Satires 13677: Penny Royal- used for various purposes raised by slips-offsets &c-vide Dictiony. (This bust of the then Regent (as patron of the Society) was commissioned from Goblet for £12). [4] A portrait of a pregnant woman (Lady Ann Monson) standing in a garden, inscribed, Arethusa Bulbosa-a Species of Egg Plant-hatches once a Year & bears fruit in all Climates--Introduced by Dr Fothergill A. 1778, as appears from Miss Lee -- daughter of a nursery-man -- it grows wild occasionally -- reports speak of a specimen presented to Society Anno 1 & cultivated for amusement, by one Adam. Perhaps a portrait belonging to the Society is burlesqued."--British Museum online catalogue
McArdell, James, approximately 1729-1765, printmaker
Published / Created:
[1757]
Call Number:
SH Contents R462 no. 10 Impression 2 Framed, shelved in LFS Bin 38
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
Portrait after Reynolds (Mannings 1819/1821); standing three-quarter length to left and leaning his right elbow on table, his right hand to his cheek, eyes to front, wearing plain coat and waistcoat, lace collar and cuffs; published second state. The objects on the table are a print of the Roman eagle at Strawberry Hill, which Walpole considered 'one of the finest pieces of Greek sculpture in the world' (see Description of Strawberry Hill, Works, v. ii, p. 463), an ink pot and quill; a roll of manuscript, and three books
Alternative Title:
Horace Walpole : youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford