"The instrumentalists are closely grouped round the armchair of the father of the family, a stout man in old-fashioned dress, who sits full face singing loudly, an open music book on his knees, his feet supported on the bar of his chair. His very fat wife sits beside him (right) blowing a trumpet to the grotesque inflation of cheek and neck. The eldest daughter (left) plays the double-bass; behind her stands a girl beating a tambourine. The younger children flank the design: a fat little girl (left) plays the triangle, looking up at her sister's tambourine. On the right a little boy sits at his mother's feet beating a large kettle-drum and shouting; he sits on two large volumes: 'Doctor Burneys Musical Travels [i.e., The Present State of Music in France and Italy ... 1771', and 'The Present State of Music in Germany . . . [etc.]', 2 v. 1773]. Mother and daughters are fashionably dressed; the daughters are comely. A howling dog seated on the extreme left adds to the impression of violent noise."--British Museum online catalogue.
Description:
Caption in design: Musick has charms to sooth the savage breast, to soften rocks, and bend the knotted oak. and Title etched below image.
"One of a set of eight plates, No. 7 (not mentioned by Grego) being missing, all having the same signatures. They may have been intended to burlesque Wheatley's 'Cries' (1793-7), from which they appear to derive. [The subjects are different from those of Wheatley, and there is no element of copying, but the group, with sentimental or humorous incident and architectural background, was Wheatley's innovation on the traditional single figure representing the 'Cries of London'. Cf. W. Roberts, 'The Cries of London', 1934, p. 12.] A ragged man, with traps of various patterns slung round him, and a trap in each hand, offers his wares to an old man (left) who looks from his bulk or stall, on which are a bird in a wicker cage and a rabbit in a hutch. A little boy and girl, hand in hand, stare intently at the rabbit. A dog snarls at two rats in one of the traps. A woman looks down from a casement window over the pent-house roof of the stall. In the background are a church spire and the old gabled houses characteristic of the slums of St. Giles and Westminster."--British Museum online catalogue.
"A pretty young maidservant stands on a doorstep (right) while a man, Irish in appearance, gazes insinuatingly into her face as he fills her bowl with brick-dust from a jar. He has an ass which stands patiently, a double sack pannier-wise across his back and a second jar or measure standing on the sack. The profile of a shrewish old woman looks through the door at the couple, who are intent on each other. A dog barks at the girl. Behind is a street, the nearer houses tall the farther ones lower and gabled. At the doorway opposite a woman appears to be giving food to a poor woman and child. A man and woman lean from the attic windows of adjacent houses to converse. A little chimney-sweep emerges from a chimney, waving his brush."--British Museum online catalogue.