In this anti-Jacobin, pro-Girondist print, seven prisoners, in various postures of distress and exclamation are seated on stools in a prison cell. Each one wears a feathered Liberty cap and each is tied to the cell wall by a rope around his neck. The cell is bare save a circular grated window in its top left corner. Speech bubbles hover above each prisoner reading: “Oh Damn it! Is this proper treatment for the Commissioners of a great nation?”, “Oh curse him this false Dumourier.”, “He has finaly trapt us”, “no hole to creep out at”, “Now I feel for the poor prisoners in the Temple”, “It’s all up. With us”, “Oh I could beat my brains out for making the motion that as brought us like asses to it”. The print alludes to the arrest of Charles Dumouriez who despite having played a key role in the victory of the Battle of Valmy in 1972 suffered a significant defeat in the Battle of Neerwinden (March 1793) at the hands of the Austrians which fuelled suspicion amongst the Jacobins of his loyalties. Believing that Dumouriez harboured royalist sympathies several commissioners representing the National Convention were sent to investigate him. Instead of cooperating with the investigation, Dumouriez turned against the deputies and the Minister of War (Pierre Riel de Beurnonville), arresting the commissioners and handing them over to the Austrian forces
Alternative Title:
Commissioners become hostages and French vermin in the German trap
Description:
Title etched below image., Date of publication inferred from the reference to events occurring in 1793., Reversed English copy, with English text, of a French print entitled "A qui Mal veut, Mal arrive." For the original French print, see Princeton University Library Graphic Arts Collection, call no.: GA 2012.01066., Text beneath title: Being a representation of the present situation of the commissioners, Bournonville, Memoire, Villeneuve, Camus, Lamarque, Luinette and Bancal who were sent to arrest Dumouriez, but the tables being turned upon them they were delivered up to the Austrians and by them imprisoned where they may reflect on the long and cruel confinement they subjected their unfortunate monarch to previous to his martyrdom., and Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum.
Publisher:
Pubd. by J. Aitken, No. 14 Castle Street, Leicester Fields, London
Subject (Geographic):
France and Austria
Subject (Name):
Dumouriez, Charles François Du Périer, 1739-1823.
Subject (Topic):
Girondists, Prisons, Cells (Rooms & spaces), Prisoners, Liberty cap, History, Campaigns, Foreign public opinion, British, and Foreign relations
Three grotesque French officers forceably recruit a gang of emaciated, terrified-looking Frenchman. Of the several men who have been thrown over the back of a horse, one has had a pole thrust into his posterior; at the top of the pole is a liberty cap. The wife and children of one man who has been tied to the back of the horse, cling in desperation to his ragged clothes, as they are dragged along behind him
Description:
Title from item., Publication year possibly an engraver's error for 1793 as the Republic was not proclaimed until 22 September 1792 and while the first execution by guillotine took place in April 1792, it was, early on, called La Louisette. See C.D. Hazen's French Revolution (1932), i., page 384 and British Museum catalogue v. 6, no. 7853., Publisher's advertisement following imprint: where may be seen a compleate model of the guilotine [sic], also the largest collection of caracaturs [sic] in the Kingdm., the head & hand of Count Streuenzee, &c. Admit. 1., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Watermark: F & P.
Publisher:
Pub. May 7, 1791, by S.W. Fores, No. 3 Piccadilly
Subject (Geographic):
France
Subject (Topic):
History, Foreign public opinion, British, Guillotines (Punishment), Liberty cap, and Starvation
At the center of the sheet stands John Bull, hands clasped in prayer, as Sheridan and Fox force the bread of liberty into his wide open mouth as they pick his pocket. On either side of the three stands a gallows and the Temple Bar. In each of the four corners in similar scenes, labelled clockwise from upper left, Holland, Savoy, German & Prussia, red-capped French sansculottes try to force the bread of liberty down recognizable national stereotypes from these four nations as they loot the terrfied citizens
Alternative Title:
Sansculottes feeding Europe with the bread of liberty
Description:
Title from text in image., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., and Sheet trimmed to plate mark on bottom edge.
Publisher:
Pubd. Jany. 12st [sic], 1793, by H. Humphrey, N. 18 Old Bond Street
Subject (Geographic):
France
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806 and Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816
Subject (Topic):
John Bull (Symbolic character), Girondists, Sansculottes, Liberty, Liberty cap, Popes, History, and Foreign relations
Two medallions side-by-side contrast British Liberty and French Liberty. On the left Britannia is seated under a large oak looking out to sea at a ship under full sail. At her feet lies the British lion, in her hands the scales of justice and a copy of the Magna Charta. On the right French Liberty, Medusa-like, tramples on a decapitated body, as she holds a trident impaled with a head and two hearts. In the background a body hangs from a street lamp shaped like a gibbet. Beneath the images, a list of contrasting virtues and vices of the two countries
Description:
Title etched above images., Printmaker, artist, and publication date from British Museum catalogue., Text in lower right corner of plate, preceded by the word "Price" that has been mostly burnished out: Plain 3d coloured 6., Six lines of text below each image. Under the image of British Liberty: Religion, morality, loyalty ... Under the image of French Liberty: Atheism, perjury, rebellion ... At the lower edge, below both columns: Which is best., and Mounted to 32 x 45 cm.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
France
Subject (Topic):
Medusa (Greek mythology), Britannia (Symbolic character), Decapitations, Hangings (Executions)., Liberty cap, Liberty, Scales, Ships, History, and Foreign public opinion, British
A gallows separates the design into two compartments. A sign in the center reads "Roberspierre, Marat, Santerre." The crossbar reads "Held up to infamy and posterity." Another sign hangs from the left arm and reads "Paine's Rights of Man." The sign on the right side reads "Classical lectures on the Roman History.", The scene on the left half is labelled at the top "Old England" and depicts naval and commercial prosperity under the bright skies. Three columns labelled Virtue, Honor and Loyalty stand over the words British Constitution; at the base of the drawing are the words "is basis, the happiness of the people.", and The scene on the right half is labelled at the top "New France", and in contrast, all is death and destruction: cities in ruins, bodies hanging from gallows, a bloody guillotine along with other instruments of torture. Flowing from the guillotine into a shaft underground are discarded fragments: religion, pubk. credit, monarchy, laws, trade, honor, loyality, virtue, art ...
Alternative Title:
Things as they are
Description:
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., On verso of mount: offset impression of Opening of the budget, or, John Bull giving his breeches to save his bacon / James Gillary. Cf. 796.11.17.01+., and Mounted to 45 x 64 cm.
Publisher:
Pubd. Novr. 12th, 1796, by H. Humphrey, New Bond Street
Subject (Geographic):
France
Subject (Name):
Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809.
Subject (Topic):
Democracy, Gallows, Guillotines (Punishment), Liberty cap, Revolutions, French, Ruins, Ships, and History
publish'd as the act diricts [sic] Feby 3, [17]94.
Call Number:
794.02.03.01
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
A large naked monster sits astride a large cup, which is balanced on a dagger held in the mouth of a small sansculotte juggler who exclaims, " By Gar tis var heavy, O dear! O dear! It will fall!" The monster holds in his hands the heads of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. On his head five daggers meet at a point to form a cap labelled "Cap of Liberty." He grins showing sharp teeth, two labels issuing from his mouth, " Ca ira, ca ira, ca ira" and "Hold me well up or I will bit off your head."
Description:
Title etched above image., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., Word "of'" in title etched over "!!" The original title appears to have been "Democracy!!", and Earlier state, with earlier date and without publisher's name. Cf. No. 8446 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 7.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
France
Subject (Name):
Louis XVI, King of France, 1754-1793 and Marie Antoinette, Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France, 1755-1793
Subject (Topic):
History, Foreign public opinion, British, Sansculottes, Decapitations, Liberty cap, and Monsters
"The head and shoulders of Fox (like Christian in 'The Pilgrim's Progress') emerge from a pool of liquid mire; he looks despairingly up and to the right, his (half-submerged) hands raised in supplication. On his back is a bundle inscribed 'Contents French Gold, French Loyalty, French Daggers [cf. BMSat 8285, &c.], And Crimes, more num'rous than the sands, upon the Ocean's shore.' His hat has fallen off, the tricolour cockade and motto 'Ca ira' are half submerged. His large club rises from the slough: 'Patriots Staff - i.e. Whig Club' [cf. BMSat 8987, &c.]. Before him floats an open book: 'Gospel of Liberty by the four Evangelists St Paine St Price St Priestly St Petion [see BMSat 8122] \ Fly to the Wrath to come." Fox says: "Help! Help! - will no kind Power lend a hand to deliver me ? - Oh! what will become of me ? - all my former Friends have forsaken me! - if I try to go on, I sink deeper in the Filth; & my feet are stuck so fast in the Mire, that I can not get back, 'tho I try; - Ah me! - this Burden upon my Back overwhelm's me, & presses me down! - I shall Rise no more! - I am lost for ever, & shall never see the Promis'd Land!!" From the slough a hill ascends up which a straight path leads to a fortified gateway in a castellated wall inscribed: 'Knock, & it shall be opened. The Straight Gate: or the way to the Patriots Paradise.' From it flies a flag of 'Libertas', surmounted with the cap of Liberty. Within the wall is a ladder slanting towards a waning moon. ..."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Three lines of text from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress quoted to the right of title: "This miry slough is such a place as can not be mended ...", and Sheet partially trimmed within plate mark.
Publisher:
Pubd. Jany. 2d, 1793, by H. Humphrey, N. 18 Old Bond Street
Subject (Geographic):
France
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809., Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804., Pétion, J. 1756-1794. (Jérôme),, and Price, RIchard, 1723-1791.
A ragged sansculotte sits astride a lamp brackets high above a square where a crowd, all wearing bonnets-rouges and all watching the beheading of Louis XVI. He fiddles as he smiles down at the scene. Hanging below him from the same lamp post are two monks and a bishop, their hands bound. Further in the distance are more hung bodies and a cathedral in flames
Alternative Title:
Pinnacle of liberty
Description:
Title etched below image, left., One line of text below title: Religion, justice, loyalty, & all the bugbears of unenlighten'd minds, farewell!, and Mounted to 47 x 30 cm.
Publisher:
Pubd. Feby. 12th, 1793, by H. Humphrey, No. 18 Old Bond Street
Subject (Geographic):
France and France.
Subject (Name):
Louis XVI, King of France, 1754-1793
Subject (Topic):
Death and burial, Sansculottes, History, Clergy, Crowds, Fires, Guillotines (Punishment), Hangings (Executions), Liberty cap, Revolutions, and Scales
