1783

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

The FEATHER'D FAIR, FEEDING the FEATHER'D FOWL

489
Printed for and Sold by Carington Bowles at his Map & Print Warehouse, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Publish'd as the Act directs 2 Jan 1783.

A fashionably dressed woman (r.) and her teen-age daughter look on as two younger children feed ducks in a pond. The little girl appears about six years old; the boy, a toddler, wears a sailor's suit with officer's hat. This print is mentioned by Stephens in relation to The Feather'd Fair in a Fright, (BMC 4550) but not catalogued or described by George in the later volume of the British Museum Catalogue. The date and numbering places this print eight years later than The Feather'd Fair in a Fright.

33 x 24.7 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.787)

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

The HIGHLAND LADDIE

490
Printed for and Sold by Bowles & Carver. No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London.

In a rural setting, farmhouse distant to far left, a Highland lad embraces a well dressed, pretty, young woman. He is dressed in plaid kilt with plaid stockings, waistcoat, and tam o'shanter. They are out of sight of the farmhouse in a copse of thick shrub. He speaks to her with his left arm around her shoulder and his right hand in her lap where she clasps his arm. The verse is "From the favourite song, The Highland Laddie."

A painted Room and a silken Bed,
May please a Lowland Laird and Lady;//
But I can Kiss and be as glad
Behind a Bush in's Highland Pladdie.

Dorothy George's link to print number would date this in early 1783.

32.1 x 24.9 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (793.0.94), Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.762)

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

RURAL LIFE

London, Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett, Map and Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 24 February, 1783

A country maid stands outside the open gate of barn or chickhen house, her hand in her basket as she scatters corn for the two hens and four chicks at her feet. In the background through a grove can be seen another farm building, a fence, and orchard. The verse points up the virtues of a rustic life.

To Operas, Masquerades, and Plays,
This Cottage Maid's a Stranger;
The feathered Care, her little Farm,//
By Poverty secured from harm,
With careless ease she spends her Days,
Secure from any danger.

32.6 x 25 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (colour, 783.2.24.3)

Plenty. L'Abondance

502
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, No. 69 in St Pauls Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs (date erased)

A beautiful young woman sits facing left in a stripped chair. She wears a pleated hat and an ruffled gown. One foot rests on a small chest and a large basket full of fruit stands by her side. She holds a pear in one hand, an apple in the other, and a sheaf of wheat in her lap. The image is by Robert Dighton. The print has a companion, Peace. La Paix, held with an impression of Plenty. L'Abondance at the British Museum. The date has been erased on both, but Dorothy George's link of date with Carington Bowles' print numbers would place this print in 1783; surviving impressions are inscribed "9 June 1783."

32.8 x 25 cm.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation(colour, inscribed to publisher but no date, 1980-232)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

The VOCAL TRIO

Pubd. 1st Augt 1783 by W. Humphrey, No. 227 Strand

A scene in the sitting room of a country manor, whose park with winding stream is seen through a window, corner right. A gentleman sits on a couch between two women, one beside him, the other leaning from behind on the couch. All three are singing from a music book the gentleman holds propped on his knee. All three are richly dressed with the women wearing feathered hats on high hairdresses. At the right a parrot roosts on the couch back and appears to be singing along. Its cage stands below it on the floor. The walls are decorated with a floral design and the carpet has a geometric pattern of repeated diamonds. The verse beneath is from William Congreve's The Mourning Bride,
I, i:
Music has charms to sooth the Savage Breast,
To soften Rocks and bend the Knotted Oak.

32 x 25 cm.
New York Public Library (MEZYRK), Colonial Williamsburg Foundation(entitled The Family Concert, and inscribed "Published by Robt Sayer, No. 53 in Fleet Street," dated "1st Nov. 1787," and numbered 231; shelfmark 1973-234)

© The Metropolitan Museum of Art

SUMMER

Published according to the Act Augt 12th 1783 by J. Straton, Map & Printseller, No 13 Parliament Street, London

A young girl holds her fan in one hand and the hem of her gown in the other and glances right. Behind reapers can be seen cutting hay or wheat. The verse points to the harvest but may turn the attention to the beauty.

Intensely Phebus pours the Summer day,
The industrious reapers pant beneath his ray, //
The Golden Ears are Noble to the Sight
So, full grown man, exult with new delight.

31 x 25 cm.
Metropolitan Museum (colour, 42.119.73)

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

The LASS with a DELICATE AIR

509
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs 9 Nov 1783

A beautiful young lady reclining on a streambank weaves a garland of flowers, or chaplet. She wears a pleated cap whose dark satin cover rests by her feet. A young gentleman approaches from the right through the woods. He stands behind a rail fence and raises his hands in surprise at the vision before him.The verse is identified as "From the favourite Song, The Lass with a delicate Air."

By a murmuring Brook, by a green mossy Bed,
A Chaplet composing, the Fair one was laid;//
Surpriz'd and transported I could not forbear
With rapture to gaze on her delicate Air.

32.7 x 24.9 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (783.11.9.1)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

THE VORACIOUS FANATIC

London, Publish'd Decr 3, 1783 by R. Pollard No 15 Brayne's Row Spa Fields

Behind in a curtained bed lies a dead or dying man. In the center forward stands a man dressed in black, hands clasped in prayer, gazing up to heaven. A woman kneels beside him to the right and looks to be forcing a dead chicken into his coat pocket. A duck looks out from the pocket on the other side and he appears to have a bottle tucked into his waist coat. To the far right, her two boys wrestle, one trying to secure the food the other holds in his hand. The verse tells the story:

Under providence, and the good-Mans Aid,
The Wifes recover'd now the Husbands laid,
The direful Fever burns in all his veins,
The wandering Quack, she asks to ease his pains.//
His Prayer, his medicine, his sham art applies,
All are in vain, for the poor Husband dies,
She may Reward, her sons for food contend,
Live or die, no matter; so he gains his End.

35.2 x 25.2 cm.
Library of Congress (PC3+1783)