1780

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

EMBLEMS of 1760 & 1780

London. Published as the Act directs 1st Jany 1780 by Robt Wilkinson, at No. 58 in Cornhill

Two women sit across from each other at a table in front of a diamond paned window. One woman (r.) is robust and jolly as she raises her glass, the other (l.) is thin, stooped, and broken in body and spirit. She wipes her tears away with an apron and holds a broken decanter in her right hand; its contents, perhaps gin, spill across and off the table. Behind the first woman is a painting of a powerful bull or ram rearing on its hind legs. The painting behind the second woman shows the animal, possibly a dying lamb, downed with its legs splayed out beneath it. The verse makes clear that the chronology of decline moves from right to left:

In this poor and humble station,
See the emblem of the nation,
Plump, facetious, brisk, and jolly,
Till reduced by vice, and folly;//
But now meager, poor, and lean,
Like some weather beaten queen,
To destruction fast she goes,
Like the GIN her spirit flows.

While cast in moral terms, the print may recall the buoyant confidence of a Britain emerging victorious and prosperous from the Seven Years War compared to the current mood in 1780 of a nation beleagured by American rebellion and fearful of a French invasion.

31.7 x 24.8 cm.
New York Public Library (MEZYRK BM5789A)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

The PRETTY MAID buying a LOVE SONG

413
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, at his Map & Print Warehouse, No. 69 in St Pauls Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs 6 Jan 1780

A young girl (l.) selects a song from the several the ballad monger has fastened to the brick wall behind him along with broadsheets and a print, a portrait. He sits (r.) with a walking stick propped on his thigh and holding his hat as if begging. He is poorly dressed with his vest held closed with strings. A hand-made broom rests beside him against the portrait. The mezzotint is J.R. Smith's posture impression of the larger oil painting, A Girl Buying a Ballad, by Henry Walton.

Reproduced: Postle, p. 20; D'Oench(1999), p. 32

Cat: D'Oench(1999), p. 205-6

35.3 x 25.1
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.766), Lewis Walpole Library (779.0.3)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

A MORNING FROLIC, or the TRANSMUTATION of SEXES

416
From the Original Picture by John Collett in the Possession of Carington Bowles, Printed for Carington Bowles, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, Publish'd as the Act directs (erased)

In this morning frolic, a young harlot mimics an army officer, donning his cocked hat and sword, and taking on a commanding stance, feet apart and hands on hips. Seated before her, the officer looks up at her with a silly grin as he affects the demure maid, prim with his knees together, wearing her cap and holding her fan. The background is her canopied bed and a tea table with cups, teapot, and creamer. Behind her to the left, a winebottle and glass, perhaps left from the evening before, sit on the mantle. Beneath it a parrot squawks defiance at a small dog, a whippet, that has jumped up to try to catch it. At the dog's feet lies an open volume entitled "Ovid's Metamorphosis, done into English." Though not catalogued by George as a BMC print, A Morning Frolic is listed for 25 March 1780 in her appendix (BMC Vol. V) dating Bowles' mezzotints.

13.5 x 11x cm.
New York Public Library (numbered 306, MEZYRK)
32.5 x 25 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (colour, 780.3.25.1), Yale Center for British Art (B1978.43.203)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

CORPORAL CARTOUCH teaching MISS CAMP-LOVE her Manual Exercise

From the Original Picture Painted by Mr. CollettLondon. Printed by R. Sayer & J. Bennett No. 53 Fleet Street as the Act directs 9 May 1780

In her sitting room, a soldier instructs a young lady in the manual of arms. Both are in profile, the soldier left, facing each other. He points with a cane toward her feet and lifts her chin with his left hand. She stands at attention with a musket over her shoulder. Behind her, far right, a drummer boy watches. Both the lady and boy look amused, the soldier more intent. Behind the young man, far right, a monkey seated on a chair or bench mimics a soldier by shouldering a short broom. Both the monkey and a spaniel that stands beside the lady appear to be watching the soldier. The room is sumptuously appointed with (colour)high side table or piano on which sits a flower vase and a few large elaborately bound books. There are paintings on the wall behind, and the drummer boy's drum stands on a chair.

14.4 x 11.5 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library, Metropolitan Museum, New York Public Library (MEZYRK)
25.2 x 32.3 cm
Lewis Walpole Library (787.1.4.2)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

The TWO FRIENDS

London. Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett, No 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 29 Augt 1780

Two young women sit together at a writing table which contains pens and ink, three stacked books, one volume open face-down, and the draft of a letter which one of of them has just begun writing. Of the two, the woman on the right is the visitor, her feathered cap more appropriate for going out than the other's muslim cap. The visitor points to the letter apparently offering advise. The open book may also be for use as a source or reference for the draft. The verse celebrates friendship.

Friendship, thou soft propitious Power,
Sweet Regent of the Social Hour,//
Sublime thy Joys, not understood,
But by the Virtuous and the Good.

33.1 x 25.5 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (1958.11.1.76)
14 x 11.3 cm.
New York Public Library (Numbered 167 and inscribed "Published 12th May 1794, by Laurie & Whittle, 53 Fleet Street, London")

Courtesy of the Newberry Library

MILITARY MAN-TRAP

A courtesan reclines on a sofa and looks up with a beguiling smile from the note she holds her hand. In her hat with its large plume, she is stylishly dressed, though her jacket is open to expose a breast. She holds a riding whip. The army officer's tent she occupies is outfitted like a sitting room with a rich carpet and an elaborate flower pattern that carries over from the sofa to a screen behind her. An officer's sword and scabbard hangs from the corner of the screen. A large vase with flowers sits at the tent entrance. In the background another tent is visible with a flagpole flying regimental colours. The couplets accompanying the image reads:

In the Tent how Engaging the charmer reclines,
The Stoutest of Hero's to Love She inclines;//
She's a Trap to catch Captains; you're lost & undone,
If once you attack her___as sure as a Gun.

Impressions survive inscribed to Robert Sayer, "25 Sepr. 1780," and this original may play off against A Man-Trap (BMC 5814) published by Carington Bowles also in1780.

32.6 x 24.9 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (no inscription or date, 781.0.15)
A reduced version numbered 168 is inscribed "London, Printed for Robert Sayer No. 53 Fleet Street as the Act directs 1 Octr 1788."
13.8 x 11 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library, Newberry Library

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

The FRUITWOMAN

London. Publish'd as the Act directs, 1 Decr 1780 by R. Wilkinson at No. 58 in Cornhill.

A heavily caricatured old woman (l.) upends a dandy who strolls between two companions by driving her wheelbarrow hard into his knees from behind. She is poorly dressed, hooked nose and a pointed chin, and snarls a curse at the fops who have been blocking her way. The toppled macaroni is falling back into her load of fruit, upon which his hat already has landed. His companion (l.) looks back in alarm, but the other is intent on a pretty young woman (r.) who watches from an open shop door. Directly behind the crone and macaronis are the windows and displays of the milliner's shop. The verse reads:

While Arm in Arm the Macaroni Beaux
Admire the Charms Trim Miliners disclose
On them behind old Kate her Barrow wheels,
And of Sr. Delicate trips up his Heels.
As on his Back among her Fruit he falls,
"Who'll buy a Beau?, my Top of Fruit," she squalls.

See also The Abusive Fruitwoman and The Enraged Macaroni.

34.9 x 25 x cm.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation(1951-83), Library of Congress (handwritten title and verse, no publisher credit, PC2+n.d)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University

Proverbs, VII, verse 7, 10, 13

Published 17 December 1780 by Smith, 10 Batemans Buildings, Soho Square, and James Birchall, 473 Strand

A young prostitute puts her arm around the shoulder of a boy, dressed in long coat, breeches, and a flat hat, and reaches to kiss him. He looks a bit dumbfounded. The subtext reads:

Vers. 7th: discern'd among the Youth a young man void of understanding
10th there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot
13th so she caught him and kissed him.

The impression is by J.R. Smith. D'Oench identifies the image as companion to another Proverb print at the British Museum in which the boy follows her off with the subtext "Ver 22d He goeth after her Straitway, as an Ox goeth to the Slaughter, or as a Fool to the correction of the Stocks."

Reproduced: D'Oench(1999), p. 48

Cat: D'Oench(1999), p. 209

35.2 x 25.3 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.662)