Symptoms of Rearing

London, J. Harris Feb. 27th 1799

Etching by James Bretherton. Original hand-colouring

Trimmed within bottom platemark

290x410mm

£160

Symptoms of Rearing

First issued by Bretherton in 1783. An elderly country clergyman sits on a spirited horse, which rears almost vertically, brandishing its front feet in the face of his terrified Parish Clerk, who cowers back clutching the Registers in his arms. The parson, his sermon protruding from his pocket, clutches his horse around the neck and drops his whip, while a small dog barks at the scene. In the background are the outlines of a church. BM 6340.

General Fast

London, S.W. Fores May 4th 1796

Etching. Original hand-colouring

Slight creasing to bottom left corner, neatly repaired hole in sky slightly affecting right platemark

310x210mm

£150

General Fast

A glum, elderly, bespectacled, lank haired, military officer, with an enormous excessively caricatured head, stands wearing the cocked hat, sash and sword of a general. A satire on poor leadership and the inferior food and equipment issued to the army. BM

The Quarrell about Pensions amicably Settled

London, c. Feb. 1796

Etching. Original hand-colouring

Trimmed to border and within publication line

230x340mm

£140

The Quarrell about Pensions amicably Settled

A scene in the salon of Charles James Fox, with Edmund Burke, Fox and the Duke of Bedford seated at a round table. On the left, the tall, skinny, elderly, bespectacled figure of Burke sits glaring across the table at the Duke of Bedford, who stares combatively back, arms folded on the table. In the centre, between the two contestants sits Fox, eyes closed, saying Take the advice of a common friend – the less said about the matter the better !. A patterned carpet is on the floor and a window is in the background. In February 1796 Burke had published Letter to a Noble Lord addressed to the Duke of Bedford and in which he bewails the loss of his son, the attack by Bedford and Lauderdale on his pension (£4000 p.a.) and condemns the Duke’s luxury and wealth. Fox had subsequently reconciled Burke and Bedford, although Burke died the following year. BM 8795.

La Promenade

London, G. Tregear Feb. 1828

Etching. Original hand-colouring

Colour slightly faded, misc neat marginal repairs

350x250mm

£140

La Promenade

A satire on the ridiculous fashions of the day. A young couple dance together in a crowded salon. The young woman wears an absurdly wasp waisted, indecently transparent dress, clearly showing her nipples and the outlines of her legs. She wears an enormous swept back, feather trimmed headdress, huge puff sleeves and her hem is grossly over-trimmed with flowers and roses. Her partner’s hair is swept back in wings that resemble a devil’s horns and he leers salaciously down her exposed bosom. His coat has absurdly padded shoulders, nipped in waist and full skirts and he wears neat pantaloons, striped stockings and pumps tied with ribbons. In the background are other equally exaggeratedly fashionable guests. Not in BM Cat.

A Gloomy Day. Taken on the Steyne at Brighton

London, R. Dighton Nov. 1801

Etching

Original hand-colouring.Overall time staining, laid onto card

280x210mm

£65

A Gloomy Day. Taken on the Steyne at Brighton

The obese, scowling figure of Matthew Day stands in profile to the right. He wears baggy hessian boots, a brown coat, yellow waistcoat, low crowned hat and carries a long knobbly cane. BM 9744.

Le grand diable d’argent patron de la finance

Paris, Jean c. 1810

Etching. Original hand-colouring

Overall browning

270x370mm

£200

Le grand diable d’argent patron de la finance

An interesting, early French financial satire. A scaly, silver, laughing Devil flies overhead, scattering coins to a scrambling group of artists and tradesmen. With one hand he empties a large purse into the begging bowl of a robed lawyer, while with the other he drops silver into the cap of a baker. He spits coins into the funnel of a wine merchant, while peeing coins into the shawl of a handsome Fille de Joie. A few coins are evacuated from his rear end into the bowl of a bewigged barber, scanty largesse falls on a ragged Cordonnier, while none are dropped onto a painter and poet, who cling desperately to his tail. On the ground lie the discarded tools and symbols of their various trades.

Company shocked at a Lady getting up to Ring the Bell

Dublin, Le Petit c. 1804

Etching. Original hand-colouring

Trimmed to border and partially within title area

240x350mm

£150

Company shocked at a Lady getting up to Ring the Bell

The interior of a luxuriously furnished and decorated breakfast parlour. The only lady present, a handsome, obviously wealthy, young widow, wearing a plumed hat and yellow dress with lawn sleeves, has risen from her seat to pull the bell cord beside the fireplace. She holds out her hand to restrain the five elderly, ugly men (evidently her suitors) who scramble frantically to prevent her, but their efforts have produced a series of disasters. On the right a fat, goggle eyed country squire lunges forward, cutting through his neighbour’s (a fat, red nosed parson) wig with his knife, causing him to poke his fork with a lump of meat attached into his eye. Behind them a man dressed as an attorney throws up his hands in horror, while on the left an elderly military officer upsets the tea urn, and treads on his neighbour’s gouty foot, causing him to choke on his food and upset his chair, and tread on the dog’s tail with the other foot. In retaliation the dog bites the officer’s knee and clutches the tablecloth with its claws, causing the crockery and teapot to crash to the floor. The picture above the fireplace is of a plump cupid, whose arrows have fallen out of his quiver and who has shot himself through the leg. The room is decorated with gilt pilasters in the shape of palm trees, with elaborate candle sconces and a patterned carpet. The fare is boiled eggs, ham, egg and muffins. Similar to BM 10303.

Introduction of Citizen Volpone & his Suite at Paris – Vide The Moniteur & Cobbett’s Letters

London, H. Humphrey Nov. 15th 1802

Etching, printed in sepia

Neatly repaired hole in sky

260x360mm

£180

Introduction of Citizen Volpone & his Suite at Paris – Vide The Moniteur & Cobbett’s Letters

An uncoloured caricature. A scene in the Napoleon’s throne room in the Tuileries, Paris. In the centre is the enormously fat, grossly caricatured Mrs Fox (Armistead), curtsying deeply to the skinny, arrogant figure of Napoleon, in court dress and enormous feathered bicorne hat, who sits on an ornate throne, hands resting on globes of the world and feet on an elaborate cushion. On the right, beside Mrs Fox is the stout, gouty, swarthy figure of her husband, bowing deeply, and also wearing court dress, sword and bag wig, with a paper inscribed Original Jacobin Manuscript poking out of his coat pocket. Behind him is the skinny, obsequious figure of Erskine, wearing his lawyer’s robes and wig, while behind them are unattractive faces of Fox’s nephew Lord Holland and his wife the haughty, disagreeable and scandalous poetess Elizabeth Vassall. In the foreground on the right, the emaciated figure of the Whig diplomat Sir Robert Adair grovels abjectly on the floor, papers labelled Revolutionary Odes and Intelligence for the Morning Chronicle sticking out of his pocket. On the left, standing behind Mrs Fox stands the handsome, balding figure of the Irish patriot and politician Daniel O’Connell. He starts forward eagerly, hand outstretched towards Napoleon, a copy of the Trial of O’Connell sticking out of his pocket. Napoleon’s famed oriental guard, wearing turbans and with drawn sabres stand behind his throne. A satire on the Whigs supposed Republican sympathies and the visit of Fox and his entourage to Paris during the short lived Peace of Amiens. They were presented to Napoleon on November 3rd 1802 during the first of Napoleon’s monthly levees after the reopening of the British Consulate. Napoleon is also satirised here for aping supposedly monarchical ceremonial. BM 9892.

Genuine. Tea. Company

London, S. W. Fores Jan. 4th 1825

Etching. Original hand-colouring

Trimmed within platemark

145x180mm

£100

Genuine. Tea. Company

Two coal heavers and dwarfish boy drink dishes of tea, purchased from a street tea stall, run by an old woman who stands behind her steaming tea urn. One man blows on his bowl, while his friend slurps it back eagerly. Teapots and cups and piles of bread and butter are laid out genteelly on the table top, while a dog barks angrily as a coalman spills boiling tea onto its back. A satire on the passion for tea drinking and the pretensions of the ‘lower orders’ to middle class gentility. Not in BM Cat.

Street Fighting. It’s a Nice Thing to be a Soldier Now a Days

London, T. McLean 1830

Etching. Original hand-colouring

Trimmed within platemark, neat marginal repairs, slight time staining.

360x255mm

£140

Street Fighting. It’s a Nice Thing to be a Soldier Now a Days

A scene in a London street during a riot. In the foreground a squad of plump soldiers and their officer, wearing enormous balloon breeches, have been ambushed by an angry housewife, who defeats them by raining down on their heads a torrent of household objects. The young officer has been crushed by a chest of drawers, while his men are cast into a confused heap by a hail of brooms, a warming pan, a griddle, chairs, coal shovel and scuttle, logs, a table, and a saucepan of boiling water cast from above. In the foreground one soldier pierces the enormous bottom of his comrade with his bayonet, and there is a pool of blood in the roadway.

A Point of Law

London, T. McLean c. 1828

Etching. Original hand-colouring

Trimmed to border, slight abrasion and repair affecting left side of image

240x340mm

£160

A Point of Law

A rare legal caricature, satirising legal quibbling and greed. Two men sit at a dinner table, laden with bowls of fruit and decanters of wine, in a coffee house. On the right sits a stout, elderly lawyer, taking a pinch of snuff and wearing an old fashioned suit of black clothes and enormous shirt frill, and on the left a tall skinny, fashionably dressed young lawyer, his finger to his nose, sits comfortably on a high backed settle. A boss eyed, grinnning, young waiter stands listening to the repartee on the opposite side of the table. The elder man says to the younger – Now Sir according to our agreement I am to tell you the best point in law – and you are to pay for the Dinner and Wine. Have plenty of good witnesses – there’s nothing to be done without them – that’s it – now you pay the Bill. The younger man, cheekily replies – Pay the Bill eh ? where’s your Witnesses - .

Something concerning Nobody. Edited by Somebody. Embellished with fourteen characteristic etchings

London, Robert Scholey 1814

Etchings, printed in sepia

Pasted into small, green paper album, trimmed within platemarks, front wrapper annotated in ink in a contemporary hand.

140x100mm of fourteen caricatures

1 vol of fourteen caricatures
Price: £350

Something concerning Nobody. Edited by Somebody. Embellished with fourteen characteristic etchings

A small, rare, interesting volume detailing the adventures of 'Nobody', a thin (apparently invisible) little man, his breeches buttoned under his chin, with his legs joined to his shoulders, indicating that having no body, he is 'Nobody'. BM 12438 - 12451.

Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit.
Frontispiece. A smiling 'Nobody' steps through a giant letter 'O'.

Somebody & Nobody.
A scowling 'Nobody' stands to a fat, puzzled John Bull, wearing top boots and holding a cudgel.

Nobody at the Door.
A startled, liveried footman, holding up a large candle, looks from a doorway, while 'Nobody' skips away grinning.

Nobody laughs at a Tragedy.
A theatre scene, showing a corner of the stage and one box, in which 'Nobody' laughs at the grotesque figure of Romeo Coates posturing ridiculously in the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.

Nobody sees it.
A pot bellied little parson stands on tiptoe to kiss a pretty young housemaid. 'Nobody' watches them with an expression of pleased reprobation.

Nobody scents it.
'Nobody' holds his nose in disgust as a fat 'cit' blows out clouds of tobacco smoke.

Nobody's at Home.
A stout John Bull enters a salon with a blank stare, findong no-one at home. 'Nobody' sprawls in a chair looking up with a frown at the visitor.

Nobody's affraid of him.
'Nobody' slinks timorously past a fat, fierce, foreign general (Platoff), with a huge bicorne hat and mustachios.

Nobody knows when to leave off at my Lord Mayor's Feast.
Two Aldermen guzzle roat beef across a small table. 'Nobody' passes back an empty plate to an astonished footman.

Nobody dies for Love.
'Nobody' lies back on a settee, overwhelmed at the sight of a hideous old woman with hairy chin, hump and little twisted legs. A small cupid stands on the arm of the sofa tugging a string around 'Nobody's' neck.

Nobody knows what is become of all the Guineas.
'Nobody' stands on the seashore, beside a moneychanger's table, his finger laid beside his nose in a knowing gesture. In the background a man mints coins in a small furnace and a man carries off a sack of Guineas towards a waiting ship.

Nobody hears it.
'Nobody' stands with his hands over his ears at the blast of a newsboy's horn and the ringing of a postman's bell.

Nobody arrested in his Minority.
'Nobody', grinning broadly, is held between two bailiffs. One holds a cudgel while the other holds out a writ. One could not be held responsible for debts incurred before achieving majority at 21.

Nobody laughs at a Touch of the Gout.
'Nobody' grinning broadly, leans back in his chair while small demons stick darts in his hideously swollen foot.

London, Carington Bowles 1768

The Double Surprize

Mezzotint

Slight rubbing on old creases, traces of old fold

355x255mm

£140

The Double Surprize

An unfortunate scene in a wine cellar. A lecherous old husband holds up a candle, while fondling the shoulders of his pretty young serving maid, while she helps herself to a glass of beer from a large barrel. Sadly they are disturbed by his ugly, furious, old wife who glares at them from the top of the cellar steps. A lantern stands on the floor and a chicken carcass is strung up from the rafters.

Dresden, March 21st 1750

Etching

280x185mm

£120

Portrait of an ugly dwarfish engraver

A heavily caricaturised, full length, profile portrait of a small, elderly man, with an exaggeratedly enormous head, holding an engraving tool and gazing anxiously at an engraved portrait of a horse’s head. The paper is inscribed Engel, Gran Pittore d’Animali e Bestié. One of the caricatures etched by Oesterreich from pictures in the collection of the Comte de Bruhl.

London, G. Humphrey May 6th 1831

Etching

Original hand-colouring

355x255mm

£140

Sinbad the Sailor and The Man of the Mountain

In the centre Henry Brougham, in his Chancellor’s Robes and wig over a pair of inappropriate black and white checked trousers, and with a small bonnet rouge perched on his wig, rides piggyback on the shoulders of a stooping King William IV, who wears the blue jacket and white duck trousers of a sailor. With one hand Brougham has plucked off the King’s crown, which he throws down behind them, while with the other he places a large, cockaded bonnet rouge on the King’s head. A reference to Brougham’s part in compelling the King to dissolve Parliament in person, during the crisis attending the passing of the Great Reform Bill in March – April 1831. Brougham is here derided as a radical, with the reference to the ‘Mountain’ group of Jacobins in the revolutionary French Convention. BM 16672.

London, T. Tegg April 20th 1811

Etching

Original hand-colouring

250x350mm

£280

The Enraged Son of Mars and Timid Tonsor

Particularly bright, fresh, original hand-colouring. A scene in a ramshackle barber’s shop. In the centre of the design an elderly outraged soldier sits in a chair, holding his slashed cheek and shaking his fist at the barber who starts back in dismay, cutthroat razor in hand. The barber’s wife, holding a bowl of lather, tries to placate him, while their assistant (his hair foppishly in curl papers) and another client look on in amusement. On the left a client dries his newly shaven head with a towel and a monkey tries on wigs in front of a mirror. On a shelf above are various wig blocks, labelled Parsons Block, Doctors Block, Lawyers Block &c. and on the wall is a picture of Absolom with his long hair caught in a tree, as his horse gallops away. BM 11805.

London, T. Tegg c. 1810

Etching

Original hand-colouring

350x250mm

£400

Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads

A rare medical caricature, with exceptionally, bright fresh, original hand-colouring. A scene in a quack barber surgeon’s shop. A grotesquely ugly, old barber, bends over his equally ugly, pot bellied ‘cit’ client, pouring Macassar oil over his patient’s bald head. On the right the client’s fat, ugly old wife, stares at herself in the mirror in astonishment, as her unnaturally thick, black hair rises vertically from her scalp. Above the mirror is a notice – Wonderful Discovery, Carotty or Grey Whiskers changed to Black, Brown or Blue. On the floor is a cap with donkey’s ears labelled Fools Cap, bottles and jars line the shelves amd on the wall is pinned a large label inscribed – Macassar Oil for the growth of Hair is the finest invention ever known for encreasing hair on bald Places. Its virtues are pre-eminent for improving and beautifying the Hair of Ladies and Gentlemen. This invaluable Oil recommended on the basis of truth and experience is sold at One Guinea pr Bottle by all the Perfumers and Medicine Vendors in the Kingdom.

London, T. Tegg 1810

Etching

Original hand-colouring

350x250mm

£750

Medical Dispatch or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One Stone

A strong impression, with particularly bright, fresh, original hand-colouring. On the left an elderly, ugly, plump physician feels the pulse of a moribund, toothless, old woman, while cuddling and gazing amorously into the eyes of her pretty young daughter. He wears a blue coat and bright red waistcoat, and holds his gold topped cane (inscribed Medical Staff) under his arm, while on the table is a Composing Draught and a jar of Opium. The old woman wears a purple shawl over her head and a pink blanket over her legs. BM 11638.

Rowlandson after Bunbury

 Patience in a Punt

 Copper engraving with colour wash printed on rolled paper.  Late 19^th Century impression

 Sheet: 312 x 421 mm

 Repaired tear in the top hand margin. Otherwise good impression.

 Price: £100

Patience in a Punt

Caricature showing Gentleman in a Punt, designed by the famous 18^th century caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson RA.

London, E. King c. 1829

Etching

Original hand-colouring.Trimmed to border

245x350mm

£150

Ton

An interesting social satire. Four ladies sit in an elegant salon. All are fashionably dressed in the extreme of fashion, with tiny wasp waists, flounced sleeves, wide lace trimmed skirts and hair dressed high in ridiculous exaggerated loops. On the right an elderly dowager with a sharp nose and calculating eyes wears an enormous hat trimmed with a branch of roses, while her pretty young daughter blushes at the advances of a bold, wickedly leering young fellow. On the left two young matrons peer approvingly through their lorgnettes at a modestly mannered and dressed young man, who bows politely. In the doorway is a grinning footman. In the title area are quotes from Pope and Shakespeare.
Blush not Flower of Modesty. Shakespear.
Tis manners make the gentleman and want of the the Fellow. Pope. Not in BM Cat.

London, S, Gans c. Nov. 1831

Lithograph

Original hand-colouring

180x260mm

£85

The Two Nicks going to Warsaw

A satire on Tsar Nicholas 1st’s bloody suppression of the Polish rebellion of 1830-31. Tsar Nicholas (1796-1855), runs along, wearing military uniform and with bloody sword drawn, arm in arm with the Devil. In the background are the sketchy outlines of the city of Warsaw. Inheriting the throne from his brother Tsar Alexander 1st in 1825, Nicholas adopted a policy of ruthless russification of territories under his control. In 1830, after the revolution in France and unrest in Holland, Nicholas decided to intervene and suppress the move towards democracy in the West. He intended to use the Polish Army as an advanced force but instead propelled the Polish patriots into revolt. On the night of November 29th the cadets of the Warsaw Military College launched an insurrection. The Poles fought bravely against heavy odds in former Polish territories around Wilno, Volhynia and the borders of Austria and Prussia. The insurrection spread to Lithuania where it was led by a woman, Emilia Plater. For a while victory actually lay in their grasp but indecision on the part of the Polish leaders led to defeat. Warsaw was taken in September 1831, followed by terrible persecution; over 25,000 prisoners were sent to Siberia with their families and the Constitution of the "Congress Kingdom" was suspended.

General Jail Delivery

London, the Satirist May 1st 1812

Aquatint, printed in sepia

Repairs to right margin, traces of old folds, small repaired split on fold

200x375mm

£120

General Jail Delivery

A scene outside Newgate Prison. Cobbett wearing leg irons and a noose around his neck, and carrying a paper inscribed Register, is being carried out in triumph by two ragamuffins, while being cheered by a disreputable crowd of jailbirds. On the right is Finnerty with a fragment of pillory around his neck, while on the left are the radical tailors Francis Place and Daniel Lovell holding a cabbage and yardstick. Cobbett had been tried for sedition, Finnerty had been sentenced to eighteen months for publishing a libel on Castlereagh’s cruelty in Ireland, Lovell had been condemned for complaining in the Manchester papers about the conduct of the military arresting Burdett. BM 11724.

London, T. Tegg 1807

Etching. Original hand-colouring

Trimmed to border and laid onto old album paper

245x345mm

£130

A Bit of Flattery

A tall, fashionably dressed, Irish portrait painter stands with his cocked hat under his arm, between a hugely fat, ugly young lady and the portrait he has just painted of her. She wears a decolletee dress and gloves and carries a small parasol, and stands with coyly downcast eyes. On the canvas (a good likeness) she is transformed into Juno pouring out a libation to Jove (depicted as a small eagle with thunderbolts clutched in his claws), and she wears a quasi-classical draperies with her enormous breasts and arms bare. The painter (doubtless thinking of his fee) is flatteringly extolling her sparkling eyes and dimpled cheeks. BM 10915