Scope and Contents

Created by Frederick George Byron. Published by W. Holland. Satire; a lady and gentleman travelling in a coach drawn by three horses; the man holds a urinating baby out of the front of the coach; the coachman wears very large boots, a soft brimmed hat, and smokes a pipe. Hand-coloured etching. Description from the British Museum.

Scope and Contents Created by Isaac Cruikshank. Published by W. Holland. A scene depicts a campsite based in Abyssinia (pre-Ethiopia). There are monkeys around the frame of the etching, climbing trees and hanging off leaves adding to the ‘exotic’ depiction of Africa for a British, domestic audience. On the right there is a lady looking down at a man who carves open a dead lion, who’s back leg is tied to a tree. To the extreme right, a figure with an Egyptian headdress sits butchered with one hand decapitated...

Scope and Contents Created by Isaac Cruikshank. Published by S. W. Fores. The Duke of Clarence dressed as a woman leans over a first-floor balcony to empty a cracked chamber-pot (inscribed 'DC') upon the tambourine which a man is playing in the street below. This man capers along, leading two street musicians to whom he says, "Come along my Boys Come along thats your sort keep it up - I wont commit you now never fear its rare fun ay'nt [it] & all Gratis". One man kneels on one knee playing a mechanical...

Scope and Contents Created by James Gillray. Published by Hannah Humphrey. The interior of a bedroom, with Miss Gunning in bed (left), facing the spectator; a stout woman, her mother, holds her arm; both look round in alarm at a much-caricatured creature, Miss Minifie, who rushes towards them (right) from an open door, arms outstretched, gaping with staring eyeballs. Mrs. Gunning raises a leg in her surprise, breaking a bottle of 'Brandy' which with a glass had been concealed under her petticoats. Beneath the...

Scope and Contents Anonymous artist. Published by T. Omer. A travesty of the picture [formerly attributed to Quintin Matsys and known as] 'The Misers' at Windsor, the misers being George III, writing in his ledger and counting coins, and Queen Charlotte, leaning on his shoulder. The pose, dress, background, and accessories are closely copied, except that the hood over the Queen's head is pushed back to show a large ear-ring and her hair which is decorated with pearls. The 's' of 'Originals' in the title has...

Scope and Contents Anonymous artist. Published by S. W. Fores. A large building, the Albion Mills, seen from the Thames, is on fire. Demons rejoice at the sight: one seated under a central arch at the waterside, another, squatting on the chimney of an adjacent 'Gin Shop' (right), applies bellows to the building. A crowd below (on Blackfriars Stairs) shouts "blow away my old dad". He answers, "That i will for what they save in Bread theyl spend in Gin". Another group on the extreme right shouts "Aye now we...

Scope and Contents Created by Isaac Cruikshank. Published by S. W. Fores. In the foreground are barges: from a fire-barge belonging to one of the insurance companies a jet of water is directed against the building; in 'The Companys Barge' are four dejected-looking proprietors, two of whom say, "I had rather be Elevated in Mark Lane then be in thare" and "I'll say I did not be long to the Company." A jovial-looking oarsman says to his companion "They look D--d Sulkey about it". Against the building lie barges...

Scope and Contents Anonymous artist. After the French revolution, in 1791, conflicts in Ireland arose concerning their freedom from the British government. In this scene, a group of Irish rebels, wearing military gear, stand around and sit upon cannons filled with potatoes at a ‘Bristol Boarding school’. On the ground to the left is a sack of ‘Munster potatoes’. From left the soldiers say in turn: “For indictments of law never budge, all Juries love Bucks that will wench; and sure we may challenge the judge,...

Scope and Contents Created by William Dent. Former Prime Minister William Pitt hugs Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who looks bloodied and bruised after a fight. He says to her, "I'll do for your grey hairs" and she replies, "and I'll teach you how to handle a woman, you young dog, that I will indeed." Scene depicts a change in gender roles. This is highlighted by the comments made by three women to the right, dressed in antiquity/Roman dresses with spears and shields. From the far right they say: "Oh!...

Scope and Contents Created by James Gillray. Published by S. W. Fores. Pitt as Don Quixote (and Petruchio) bestrides a sorry rosinante, the white horse of Hanover, scarred and decrepit and apparently at the point of death. Behind him sits the King of Prussia. Holland, as Sancho Panza, on the animal's hind-quarters, clasps Prussia round the waist. The Sultan, on the extreme left, crouches behind the horse, kissing its tail. Pitt, who holds a whip, points a thin mail-clad hand arrogantly at Catherine of Russia...

Scope and Contents Created by James Gillray. Published by Hannah Humphrey. Pitt, very thin and elongated, poises on one toe on a tight-rope; he holds a long balancing-pole in both hands, on one end (left) sits the Sultan, on the other (right) Catherine II. The Turk, whose end of the pole is slightly the lower, clutches it desperately, saying, "My dear Billy, do help me to make another push, & I'll give you - half of my Seraglio". The fat Empress sits with her hands on her hips; she wears a crown, in her...

Scope and Contents Created by Richard Newton. Fox, standing in front of an archway (right) inscribed 'Office', kicks and pushes Pitt away from it. He is stout, ruffianly, and fierce, and wears a bonnet-rouge [not coloured red] with cockade; he says, "Push on keep moving Billy". Pitt (left), tall and thin, in profile to the left, runs forward, shedding tears, a large handkerchief in his right hand. He says: "Pray forgive me this once! and I'll never do so no more." Both are grotesquely caricatured. Above the...

Scope and Contents Created by Isaac Cruikshank. Published by S. W. Fores. The massive Lady Mary Duncan, standing against the trunk of a large bare tree, kisses the Turkish Plenipotentiary (left), holding him by his beard; she says, "Poor Man! Can I relieve thy wants? There shall not then a stone be left Unturned (Poor Pacch) to Ease thy Labouring Breast". Pacchierotti stands (right) looking round the tree-trunk, and saying, "Oh mio Dolore, Mary Crudel now I have lost all my Jewels, oh deforsa Abelard, thus...

Scope and Contents

Created by James Gillray. Print shows Edmund Burke standing behind and with his hands on the heads of Richard B. Sheridan and Charles James Fox who bow before him over a railing, perhaps before Parliament. Burke says, "Behold the abettors of Revolutions, see the authors of Plots & conspiracies, & take cognizance of the enemies of both Church & State ... who are aiming at the Overthrow of the British Constitution."

Scope and Contents Created by James Gillray. Published by Hannah Humphrey. Fox as Guy Vaux kneels on one knee beside a pile of three barrels which he is about to fire with a lighted paper inscribed 'Rights of Man', holding up a dark lantern in his left hand. Burke, dressed as a watchman, rushes towards him and seizes Fox's left wrist, turning the rays of the lantern on his face, while he springs the rattle in his outstretched right hand. His long staff rests on his shoulder and he wears a long coat with a...

Scope and Contents Created by Isaac Cruikshank, after John Nixon. Published by S. W. Fores. Fox and Burke stand side by side on the floor of the House of Commons. Behind and between them is the Speaker, just risen from his chair, behind the table with its books and mace. On each side are members, their gestures and expressions showing great agitation. Fox (left) stands full face weeping, holding up a handkerchief; his left hand is on his breast. Large tears fall to the ground, where a boy on his knees is...

Scope and Contents Anonymous artist. Political satire; a figure of Britannia lies under a tower of bricks, each labelled with a tax, her head on a sack marked 'Budget', exclaiming "'Tis More Than I can Bear"; to the left are the Archbishop of Cantebury, saying "Blessed is he who Buildeth on a good foundation ...", and Pitt, saying "My Yoke is Easy and my Burden light"; to the right is a figure with a magnifying glass, exclaiming on the size of the tower, and a dog with a man's face and a scholar's cap. ...

Scope and Contents Pitt, 'chapeau-bras', stalks haughtily from his coach (left) towards the door of the House of Commons (right), his head thrown back, left hand on his breast, a small empty bag in his right hand. Documents inscribed 'Taxes' protrude from his coat-pocket. Spectators cluster in the foreground to see him pass. A very stout constable with a long staff motions them back, shouting, "make way there for the Minister Take Care of your Pockets". He wears the red waistcoat of the Bow-street runner and...

Scope and Contents Created by Isaac Cruikshank. Published by S. W. Fores. Recruits, bound and humiliated, are led off by two grotesque French officers, a third drives them along with his sword. Five famished-looking men have been thrown across the back of a large, clumsy, and scarred horse, where they lie head downwards, screaming. Into the posteriors of the topmost man is thrust a vertical pole, striped like a barber's, and tricolour, which supports a cap of 'Liberté'; he says, "I wont be a Volunteer foutré"....

Scope and Contents Created by Frederick Geroge Byron. Satire with two contrasted scenes: on the left Britannia, crushed by the weight of taxes as she staggers towards a grave that Time is digging, does not see that behind her the dark clouds are opening to reveal the arrival of Liberty and that a hand reaches out to sieze the mitre from a bishop's head; on the right Liberty reaching out to happy Frenchmen who kneel to greet her: Lafayette, on the far right, echoes his famous oath of loyalty to "la Nation, la...