"A young man, [Friedrich Christian Accum (1769-1838) misidentified by Dorothy George as] Humphrey Davy (1778-1829), stands on a platform in a crowded lecture-room, circular in shape, an arc of the wall being shown. He pours liquid from a kettle into a beaker. His table is covered with similar beakers, a tiny retort, &c. Behind him is a door inscribed 'Surrey Institution'. The absorbed audience consists chiefly of pretty women in evening dress and ugly and elderly men. Men are seated on the platform; one is standing. In the foreground (left) a much caricatured elderly man in old-fashioned dress and bag-wig leans forward on his stick, registering anguished jealousy. In his pocket is a book: 'Accum's Lectures' .... Spectators look down from a balcony immediately above the platform."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Date of publication from Grego. A date of ca. 1810 is given in the British Museum catalogue., and Watermark: J. Whatman 1810.
A fat elderly citizen, solidly seated, is beset by two pretty young women who offer him fruit. His wife (left) says "You must have some apricots my love." The woman on his right adds, "Just taste these grapes brother in law you never eat finer." He shouts up with angry suspicion to the latter, "Won't eat anything more I tell you. I shall be choaked. Got an eye to the estate I suppose."
Description:
Title etched below image., Series title and number etched above image., Publication date from watermark., Original publication line: Pubd. Oct. 1, 1799, by R. Akerman, No. 101 Strand., Sheet trimmed to plate mark., Later state of no. 9624 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 7., Later state of print described by Joseph Grego in Rowlandson the caricaturist, v. 2, p. 15., Temporary local subject terms: Female dress, 1799 -- Food: fruit., and Collector's stamp on verso: SP.