"A balloon about to rise from the ground encircled by three tiers of galleries or narrow platforms, protected by railings. Behind the railings sit the passengers. In the highest tier are three ladies notorious at that time for their amours ...: Grace Elliott or Eliot, née Dalrymple, known as 'Dally the tall', she holds a fan, turning her head in profile to the left, towards Perdita (Mary Robinson), who clasps her hands ecstatically; Lady Worsley sits on the right. In the centre gallery sit ex-ministers: North (left) and Fox (right) in the centre, North's arm on Fox's shoulder; Fox turns his head to North with an expression of satisfaction. Each rests his right hand on the railing in front of him, and these hands hold an inconspicuous thread which is attached to the nose of the Duke of Portland (left), who turns in profile to the right. On the right, a little apart, sits Burke dressed as a Jesuit (see British Museum Satires No. 6205) looking in profile to the right towards the Pope, who stands on the gallery, emerging from behind the curve of the balloon. He wears furred robes and his triple crown; as a pendant to him on the extreme left is the Devil looking towards the ministers with a pleased expression; over his arm he holds a net. In the lowest gallery sit celebrated quacks and other London characters. These are (left to right) "Vestina', the goddess of Health who advertised the virtues of the celestial bed (incorrectly said to have been Lady Hamilton), sits next her employer, Dr. Graham; they look at each other; she holds a sceptre wreathed with a garland. Jeffery Dunstan, Mayor of Garrat, stands, knock-kneed, with his sack over his shoulder in his accustomed attitude when calling 'old wigs'. Sam House sits resting a foaming tankard of porter on the railing in front of him, the tankard inscribed "House Ward[our] Stre[eet]". Katerfelto, turned in profile to the right, gazes up at the moon through his telescope; in his left hand is a paper, "Wonders, Wonders Most Wonderfull Wonders", the usual heading of his advertisements, cf. British Museum Satires No. 6162. His black cat sits on the railing facing him, saying, "are there Mice in the Moon Master". In the upper right corner of the design is the moon, a crescent-shaped profile inset in a circle, looking down at the balloon. The balloon is encircled longitudinally by eight ropes which meet in a knot beneath it and are there attached to four stouter ropes attached to the four corners of a platform which rests on the ground, from which the balloon appears about to ascend. On this platform is a tub inscribed "Vanity", bubbling over with soapsuds inscribed "Froth". Beside the platform (right) stands a Frenchman capering on one leg and flourishing a knife. He says, "Oh Begar dis be von fine Cargo." ... In the background are the roofs and spires of London, St. Paul's being prominent on the left, the Monument on the right. ..."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., "Hanibal Scratch" might be a pseudonym of John Nixon; see Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 5, page 842., Text beneath title: Setts out from Swan with two Necks Lad Lane every Monday morg., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Twenty lines of verse in four columns below image, etched above and on either side of title: Who choose a journey to the Moon, may take it in our Stage Balloon ...
Publisher:
Pubd. Decr. 23, 1783, by Wm. Wells, No. 132 Fleet Street
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain.
Subject (Name):
Elliott, Grace Dalrymple, -1823, Robinson, Mary, 1758-1800, Worsley, Seymour Dorothy, Lady, North, Frederick, Lord, 1732-1792, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Portland, William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, Duke of, 1738-1809, Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797, Pius VI, Pope, 1717-1799, Graham, James, 1745-1794, Dunstan, Jeffery, 1759?-1797, House, Samuel, -1785, Katterfelto, Gustavus, -1799, and St. Paul's Cathedral (London, England),
"A circular globe floating in the air just above the heads of three standing spectators. A witch on a broom-stick (left) flies with her back to the balloon at which she directs a blast, labelled 'Inflammable Air', from her posteriors; she is suckling a cat which sits on the broom-stick. A man standing below (left) holds a torch in the 'Inflammable Air' saying "How blue it burns". On the right two men look up at the balloon. One, in profile to the left, wearing pigtail queue, looped hat, and ruffled shirt, says "We shall now have a Lunatick Journal". The letters 'F.R.S.' inscribed at his feet show that he is a Fellow of the Royal Society. Behind him is a more plainly dressed man wearing a bob-wig and no hat; he holds up a card saying "I've a card for ye Georgium Sidus"; he is A.S.S."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Trip to the moon
Description:
Title etched below image.
Publisher:
Publish'd 02th [sic] Novr. 1783 by W. Humphrey, No. 227 Strand
A series of ten images showing the rise and fall of the Fox-North Coalition. In the first image, Charles Fox, shown as a fox, speaks to the crowd in front of the Covent Garden Church. In the second one, Lord North, the 'country gentleman' leading sheep on strings, makes an agreement with Fox, who leads the 'Wes[tminste]r geese' on strings. The third image shows Fox speaking to a crowd in a rotunda, while in the fourth one he is stoking a fire around a pole topped with the liberty cap and the India charter suspended from it. In the fifth image, North and Fox, sharing one coat, stand on a plinth signed, "Power." The sixth image shows Fox ascending in an air balloon while the next one shows him falling head-down into a "pitt." In the eighth image, the two politicians are being rejected by the figure of Britannia, who refuses to look at them, instead pointing to the gallows in the background. This condemnation results in their execution, together with Burke, in the ninth image. In the tenth image, all three are shown as well-known mythological sinners in Hades; Burke submerged up to his neck as Tantalus, Fox stretched on a wheel as Iion, and North as Sisyphus pushing a large boulder
Alternative Title:
Two new sliders for the state magic lantern
Description:
Title etched below image., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., 1 print : etching on wove paper ; plate mark 23.7 x 33.1 cm, on sheet 29.8 x 37.3 cm., and Formerly mounted on leaf 24 of volume 1 of 14 volumes.
Publisher:
Pub. 29th Decr. 1783 by W. Humphrey, 227 Strand
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, North, Frederick, Lord, 1732-1792, and Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797
Subject (Topic):
Politics and government, Britannia (Symbolic character), Foxes, Public speaking, Balloons (Aircraft), Gallows, and Hell
