1790

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

The GUARDIAN FRIGATE, commanded by LIEUTENANT RION, surrounded by ISLANDS OF ICE in the SOUTH SEAS, on which she struck, 24th December 1789, in her Passage to BOTANY BAY with the departure of the CREW in the JOLLY BOAT

599
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles No. 69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Published as the act directs

Lieutenant Rion and two officers stand on the quarterdeck as the bow of the ship appears to sink under the ice. One man, a warrant officer, clasps Rion's right hand as the commander waves his left hand to the crew, now casting off in the jolly boat. The jolly boat carries nine, a pig and sheep and several trunks or tied boxes. One sailor prays, others wave farewell, holding various instruments such as telescope and quadrant, and tools, a ship's pike and a hatchet. From a watercolour by Robert Dighton.

The Guardian, bound for Australia with supplies and convicts, had struck ice 1200 miles out of Table Bay after stopping for provisions in Cape Town. Four jolly boats put off from the disabled vessel with fifty six crew and convicts. Only one boat with fourteen men was rescued, this by a French merchant vessel. Lieutenant Rion remained on board with seventy convicts and officers. They managed to keep the Guardian afloat until they were sighted by a Dutch packet boat, which assisted men and boat in returning to Table Bay nearly two months after the accident. The news inspired a stage enactment at Sadler Wells in early June 1790. Dated to 1790 by Dorothy George's link of Bowles' print numbers to date.

23.6 x 35.2 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (790.9.22.1)

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

THE STROLLING BAGPIPER

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

A aging man looks up as he plays upon a bagpipe. He wears a tattered hat decorated with a long feather and a rose. This impression is reduced from a posture published by Carington Bowles, "2 Jany 1790."

13.8 x 11.1 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (793.0.61)

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

THE WELCOME HOME

258
Published 1 Octr 1790 by Robt Sayer, No. 53 Fleet Street, London

Outside the door of a country house, an older sister, about twelve years old, clasps the hand and arm of a sister in greeting and bends kiss her. The girl being greeted wears a hat for travel and a long ribbon bow on her gown. Beside the older sister, a much younger child holds up her doll for the returning sister to see. The pillars beside the door and its window panes indicate the family is well-to-do. In the distance can be seen a village and church steeple.

32.1 x 24.8 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.792)

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

The LAMPLIGHTER

By Mr. Dibdin

602
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles No. 69 St. Paul's Church Yard London.Printed as the Act direct 9 Novr 1790

A lamplighter walks a street near dusk, carrying a ladder over his shoulder and and a metal torching device, an oil cannister whose long spout stuffed with a wick has been lit. A small plume of smoke rises from the spout. A hat with buckle tops shoulder length curly hair which with his stripped coat and pom-pom garter knots makes him look rather a dandy. Around his waist he wairs a apron with other implements of his trade, scissors and wicking material. The left background is a large city house or building with a church whose steeple rises behind and another building with steeple forms the more distant background to the right center. On the far right is a brick building wall from which a iron fence runs to a lamppost. The image, from a watercolour by Robert Dighton, illustrates the following poem, "Jolly Lamplighter," by Charles Dibdin:

I am the jolly Lamplighter,
They say the Sun's my dad,
And truly I believe it Sir,
For I'm a pretty lad.
Father and I the world delight,
And make it look so gay,
The difference is, I lights by night,
And Father lights by day.
But Father's not the likes of I
For knowing life and fun,
For I strange tricks and fancies spy
Folks never show the Sun.
Rogues, Owls & Bats can't bear the light
I've heard your wise ones say,
And so, d'ye mind, I sees at night,
Things never seen by day.
At night men lay aside all art
As quite a useless task,
And many a heart and many a face
Will then pull off the mask:
Each formal prude and lusty wight,
Will throw disguise away,
And sin it openly at night,
Who point at it all day.
His darling hoard the miser views,
Misses from friends decamp,
And many a stateman mischief brews
To his country, o'er his lamp.
So Father and I, d'ye take me right,
Are just on the same lay;
I bare face sinners light by night
And he false saints by day.

30.5 x 25 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (790.11.7.2), Metropolitan Museum