1781

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

AN ENGAGEMENT between THE HEART OF OAK and CHARMING SALLY

460
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, at his Map & Print Warehouse, No. 69 in St. Paul's Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs (date erased)

A pretty young woman (l.) and handsome sailor (r.), seated together on a couch, exchange amorous glances. He holds her right hand in his left and her arm is around his shoulder. Unlike several other "engagement" prints from the period, there is no hint here that this is a commercial transaction. The image is by Robert Dighton, included in Watercolours by Robert Dighton, Sotheby catalogue, 1978, as A Courting Couple. Reproduced in C.N. Robinson, The British Tar in Fact and Fiction, 1909, p. 312. Dated by Dorothy George to 1781.

32.7 x 25 cm.
New York Public Library (MEZYRK), Lewis Walpole Library (colour, 781.6.0.5)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

HIGH WIND, or PROVIDING for MAY DAY

Pub'd as the Act directs Jany 25th 1781 by W. Richardson No 68 High Holborn

As she steps from a doorway a woman loses her thickly curled and ribboned wig to a high wind. She looks aghast as she raises one hand to her head and reaches after the wig with the other. The wig has flown into the outstretched hands of a chimney sweep who catches it high over his head. A building fills the right background, receeding to the center. Behind are trees bent by the wind. The allusion to May Day in the title suggests the chimney sweep may keep the wig for his holiday costume. See Humours of May Day (1778).

15.1 x 11.2 cm.
Library of Congress (PC3+1781)

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

SWEET ECHO

London. Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett, Map & Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 25 Jan 1781

A young gentlewoman sits in a captain's chair in a grove near a rock cliff with waterfall. She holds a sheet of music. In a distance, a road leads to a manor situated at the edge of a far wood. The verse indicates she has been singing.

Sweet Echo,
Sweetest Nymph//
That liv'st unseen
Within thy Airy Cell.

33 x 25.2
Lewis Walpole Library (781.1.15.1)

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

THE LADY OF THE MANOR

London. Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett, Map & Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street as the Act directs, 1 Feby. 1781

On the grounds of a manor, a well-dressed young woman, perhaps a widow, rests her left elbow on a tomb and drops her right hand to reveal the title, "Hervey's Dialogues," across the top of the open pages of the book she has been reading. The background (l.) includes a corner of the manor house. The subtext reveals her sentiments, "I'll not distress my Tenants, take back your Yearly Rents, & when better times shall come, remember your kind Benefactress." Ellen D'Oench (1999) links the image to James Hervey's Meditations Among the Tombs,1746, 54-55. The subtext indicates the lady has been caught up in the spirit of Hervey's Methodist devotions.

13.7 x 11 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library("Printed for Robert Sayer. . .15 Sept 1786," 954.5.4.26)
32.5 x 24.8 cm.
Huntington Library (title and subtext only, BMX n.d. Pr.Box 211.11/47)

Courtesy of the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library

RIGGING for a CRUISE

Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett, Map and Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street as the Act directs 3 April 1781.

A young woman stands left and center, ready to go out, while an older woman, a bawd, adjusts her apron. Under a window, to the right of the bawd is a dressing table with mirror, cosmetic boxes, wine bottle and glass. The scene is probably a brothel, the young woman going out to pick up a sailor, a seaport occupation suggested by the title and the painting of two ships under sail behind her.

32.3 x 25 cm.
Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library (colour, HEW 13.8.3), Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.805)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

THE RUINED GIRL

London: Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett Map & Printsellers, No. 53.Fleet Street, as the Act directs, 12 April 1781

As she turns away to wipe a tear from her eye with a handkerchief, a young girl in elaborately pleated dress and cap points down to a letter dropped on the carpet beside her.The scene out the window, corner left, is a park-like landscape. The oval painting, upper right, is largely obscured by drapery but seems to be a warrior or knight standing before a seated woman. The verse below offers the girl's lament:

Oh! fatal Day when to my Virtues wrong,
I fondly listen'd to his flattering Tongue,//
But oh! more fatal Moment when he gain'd,
That vile Consent which all my Glory staind.

32 x 24.7 cm.
New York Public Library (MEZYRK), Lewis Walpole Library (impression ascribed solely to Sayer, numbered "236," and dated "30 Octr 1786," 786.10.10.1)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

Sr. Timothy THICKETS first Reel to LONDON or the Beauties of KINGS PLACE drawing LOTS for a _______

London. Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett Map and Printsellers, No . 53, Fleet Street, as the Act directs, 12 April 1781

A young country squire sits in a chair before a canopied bed as two young women draw lots from his hand to determine whose customer he is to be. One looks at him boldly and exposes her breasts, while the other turns her face away coyly. He appears to be freshly arrived from the country in boots and riding hat. He has found his way to King's Place, famous for Charlotte Haye's brothel. The verse explains:

The first time in London the Squire is found,
He goes where the daughters of Pleasure abound,//
But no partial distinction presides in his Head,
So agrees to cast Lots which shall honor his Bed.

32.3 x 24.5 cm.
New York Public Library (MEZYRK BM5900A)
13.8 x 11.1 cm. (dated "11 Aug 1781")
Lewis Walpole Library (781.8.11.1), Metropolitan Museum

Courtesy of the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library

The FAIR PENITENT

London. Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett, Map & Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 14 April 1781

The young woman has a pensive look as she sits at a round table with her face resting on a loose fist, her elbow on her handkerchief. The carpetted veranda opens on a canal or reflecting pond bordered with a line of poplars. The verse warns,

Were ye, ye Fair, but cautious whom ye trust,
Did ye but know how seldom Fools are just, //
So many of your Sex wou'd not in vain,
Of broken Vows, & faithless Men complain.

32.1 x 24.6 cm
Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library (colour, HEW 13.8.3) Metropolitan Museum (colour)
Yale Center for British Art (untitled and without inscription, verse, or date; a printed title on the mat is Dame du Reflexion, B1970.3.817)

Courtesy of the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library

The SINGING BIRD

442
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, at his Map & Print Warehouse, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs (date erased)

A lovely young woman sits on a sofa directed left and turns to look right up to a bird in a cage. She is elaborately dressed with wig and cap and holding a closed fan in her gloved hands. Other surviving impressions include the date "17 Apr 1781."

32.5 x 25 cm.
Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library (colour, HEW 13.8.3)

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

CELADON & CELIA

London, Published May 12th 1781 by J. Burdell No. 473 Strand and J.R. Smith, No.10 Bateman Buildings, Soho

A young man in lace collar and cape makes a sweeping gesture (r.) with his feathered hat and raises his eyes to the heavens as he swears his love for the young woman seated behind him on a sofa. She gazes at him intently and clasps his hand. But between the lover's legs can be seen the face of another young man peeking out from beneath the sofa. The subtext reads:"Vide Prior's tale of a Young Gentleman in Love/ Love is a jest & Vows are wind."

Matthew Prior's poem (1702) satirizes the extravagence of lovers' vows. In a mock-pastoral vein, Celadon forswears the court and public life to retire with Celia's love "For ever, in this humble Cell." Celia, in turn, vows her "constant Passion," declaring she could love no man but Celadon: "I would not quit/ My Shepherd's arms and this Retreat,/ To be the PERSIAN Monarch's Bride." Yet once he has secured Celia's troth, Celadon "leaving her ador'd Embrace,/ Hasten'd to Court, to beg a Place." And with Celadon gone, Celia "Call'd THYRSIS from beneath the Bed;/ Where all this time he had been hid."

33 x 25 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (781.5.12.2), Metropolitan Museum

Courtesy of the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library

Jack Oakham throwing out a Signal for Engagement

London, Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett, Map & Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 24 May 1781

A sailor solicits a well-dressed young woman on a country road, dangling a long purse with one hand held high and pointing off to the left with his walking stick. He grins while she hides a coy smile with her fan. This image is reproduced in C.N. Robinson's The British Tar in Fact and Fiction, facing p. 236.

32.5 x 25.5 cm.
Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library(colour, dated "11 July 1781," HEW 13.8.3)
14 x 11.1 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (781.7.21.1)

Courtesy of the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College LIbrary

THE PROMENADE

Pub'd June 25th 1781 by W. Humphrey No. 307 Strand, London.

A fashionably dressed couple walk through a ballroom arm in arm absorbed in conversation. In the background (l.), two women talk together on a settee. Behind the central couple, a gentleman and two ladies (r.) stand together. One lady whispers to the other, her mouth shielded by her fan, and appears to be gossiping about the promenading couple who have just passed them.

32 x 25 cm.
Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library(colour, title only, HEW 13.8.3), Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.805)

Courtesy of the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library

THE WISHING FEMALES

London. Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett, Map & Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 6 July 1781

Two well-dressed young women gaze out of their sitting room window at a military encampment. One looks through a telescope. Several soldiers and tents can be seen outside.

32.8 x 25 cm.
Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library (colour, HEW 13.8.3) Metropolitan Museum (colour)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

Modesty

London. Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett Map & Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs, 13 July 1781.

As she passes him on the street, a fashionable young woman holding a lapdog raises her fan to screen her view of a short, plainly dressed man urinating against a wall. The man stands with his back to us, his stream falling between his legs and puddling out onto the sidewalk. The impression was republished by Robert Sayer, "13 July 1790."

32.5 x 25 cm.
New York Public Library (untitled and uninscribed, MEZYRK Anon und.45)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

BEAUTY is a RIDDLE

London Printed for W. Johnson. Printseller 17th August 1781

A smiling courtesan lounges against the left arm of a settee with one foot on the floor, the other stretched before her. She wears a large daycap and a house gown or robe loose enough to expose her breasts. The gown falls between her legs to show their outline, and she sits with her hands clasped on her lap. Though more provocative, the pose resembles Carington Bowles' The Bird of Paradise (BM 5948) published at about the same time.

32.5 x 24.7 cm.
New York Public Library (partial colour, Satyr p.158)

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

THE SAILOR'S PLEASURE

London, Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett, Map and Printsellers, No. 53, Fleet Street, as the Act directs, 26 Oct. 1781

In a square outside a pub, a handsome young sailor greets a pretty maid. He takes her hand in his and puts his right hand with walking stick around her shoulders. He is trimly dressed in a sailor's uniform, she also with the shawl, quilted dress, and apron that would be the fine wear of a shopgirl or servant. Other inscribed impressions confirm the hand-written title on the Yale Center for British Art print and provide printseller and date.

32 x 25 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (hand-written title only, no publisher's inscription or date, B1970.3.803)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

I saw a Smith

London.Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett Map & Printsellers No 53 Fleet St, as the act directs 6 Decr 1781

The scene illustrates lines from Act IV, ii, King John in which Hubert reports to John the public alarm and suspicion that Arthur has been murdered. The text reads,

I saw a Smith stand with his Hammer thus
The whilst his Iron did on his Anvil cool,
With open Mouth swallowing a Taylor's News.

Here a bald blacksmith, stooped over his anvil holding a hammer and a piece of iron in pliers, stares wide-eyed at a tailor who enters from the left with news of the Prince's death. In the foreground to the right, turned from the viewer, the smith's apprentice stands, aproned and sleeves rolled, holding a sledge hammer as he too gazes at the tailor. In the center background next to the forge a Negro servant looks on. The caption misattributes the lines to Act IV, Scene IV. See also The Newsmongers(1769). This print is a reduction to the smaller foremat for these less expensive drolls of a much finer mezzotint from Edward Penny's painting, published ten years earlier by Robert Sayer.

Reproduced in Lennox-Boyd et. al, Theatre: the Age of Garrick, p. 40 and Clayton's The English Print 1688-1802, p. 203.

35.1 x 25 cm.
Library of Congress (PC3+1781)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

A Side Box

London, Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett Map & Printsellers, No 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 6 Decr 1781.

Two women sit in a theatre side box, holding open fans to shield their faces from the pit. Each is richly dressed with elaborate hairdressing. One woman (l.) holds a thin volume, a play script, open on the railing and gazes up at a officer who offers her a peach or plum. Her companion looks on demurely. Matched candelabras hang in the upper corners above the two ladies.

35.7 x 25.4 cm.
Library of Congress (PC3+1781)