1791

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

THE SPORTSMAN ENAMOUR'D or THE WIFE IN DANGER

Published 24th Jany 1791 by Robt. Sayer, No 53, Fleet Street, London.

A plainly garbed young man sits across a table from a gentleman dressed for the hunt. The hunter leans his musket against his knee and seems to be gazing past his host at his pretty young wife who looks away shyly. The hunter's dog lies at his feet and a bird cage hangs above his head.

32 x 25 cm.
New York Public Library (MEZYRK BM8043A)

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

THE FLOWING CAN

Publish'd 21st April 1791 by Robt. Sayer, No. 53 Fleet Street, London

Sailors carouse in an alehouse. In the foreground , a sailor in stripped trousers dances with a young girl, accompanied by a fiddler sitting while another man beside him hoists a punch bowl. Two other sailors sit back against the wall looking on, while another kisses a woman in the background. In front of them, a portly man sits smoking a clay pipe as he hoists a rotund ale cannister. Above the revelers on the wall is the model or drawing of a sailing ship. A cat lies at the fiddler's feet. Surviving impressions include three stanzas of a verse that opens "A Sailor's life's a life of woe" and ends "and swig the flowing Can."

28.5 x 25.3 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (title only, all other inscription trimmed,791.9.18.1)

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

A COMICAL CASE

608
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs 4 June 1791

Three grinning doctors confer in an apothecary's shop. Though the printed title differs, the image is the same as BMC 8050, How Merrily We Live that Doctor's be, We humbug the public and pocket the fee, from a watercolour of the same title by Robert Dighton.

32.6 x 25.1 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (791.6.4.2)

Courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

BACHELOR'S HALL

609
Printed for and Sold by Bowles & Carver. No. 69 at St Paul's Church Yard, London.

Six men, most dressed in top coats, breeches and riding boots take a hunt breakfast of ham, bread, ale, and wine. The figure right foreground sits on the edge of the table, holding bread and knife. The other relaxes in a chair holding a glass of wine. A heavier man in a wig and cocked hat looks out the window as he sips his wine. Another carves the ham. Farther behind one man warms his backside by the fire while an older man, seated, reads. A drop leaf table sits under the window and a birdcage hangs in the corner. Over the fireplace a rack holds guns and a fencing foil. A torn print of a horse hangs left and above a broadside.

The print is from a watercolour by Robert Dighton. The 1978 Sotheby catalogue of Dighton watercolours notes that this drawing illustrates Charles Dibdin's song Bachelor's Hall, and also that the mezzotint was first published by Carington Bowles. Following Dorothy George, the Carington Bowles print number would date the original mezzotint to 1791. An earlier edition is inscribed "Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, No. 69 St. Paul's Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs, 24 June 1791." The date on the Bowles & Carver print, 24 June 1800, indicates a reissue of the older plate.

32.8 x 24.8 cm.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation(colour, 1961-205)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

A FLEET OF SMUGGLERS with a MAN OF WAR IN TOW

409
London: Printed for Bowles & Carver No. 69 St. Pauls Church Yard

In a portside brothel, a tar leans over a square table where he drinks with two women. He leers at the seated one who smiles back at him across the table. Her neckline falls away to reveal her breast; a dozen or so coins rest in her lap. The second woman, her smiling face in the background between the two, has picked the tar's coin purse which she hands behind his back to an older woman who enters through the door. The older bawd points a finger to her face, as if to indicate that her entrance, like the purse's transfer, is to go unnoticed by the enthralled sailor. A winebottle and three glasses, one in the tar's hand, stand on the table. Through the window can be seen a ship's mast and rigging. The Bowles & Carver print is reduced from a Carington Bowles' impression first published "12 August 1791."

13.5 x 11 cm.
New York Public Library (Satyr p.222)

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

WHICH YOU WILL FOR A HALFPENNY

Published 26th Septr 1791 by Robt. Sayer & Co. Fleet Street London.

A dapper young beau (r.) in high crowned hat, bob and short queue, chucks a pretty young fruitwoman under the chin as he voices the title. She sits with her arm around a woman friend, also young and pretty but heavier, behind a wheelbarrow which serves to carry and display her fruit. The beau carries the bludgeon then in fashion. His fluffy poodle faces down the women's lean whippet. The high stone wall behind the women may surround a manor since its jagged crest is comprised of knife-like protrusions designed to discourage intruders.

32.7 x 25.2 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (791.9.26.1)

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

THE NEGLECTED TAR

268
Published Octr 1st 1791 by Robt. Sayer & Co. Fleet Street London

A tar in tattered garb, the cuffs of his trousers shredded, looks in dismay around a corner at the merry scene before him. There three richly dressed young men and two women enjoy the spectacle of three dancing dogs in little hats and cloaks, prompted by a piper with a whip. As the dogs perform, the piper's boy or dwarf, grins as he holds up to the window his tambourine into which one of the gentlemen drops a handful of coins. Below the figure of the sailor at the base of the print a small label reads "Merit," the other label beneath the revelers is inscribed,"Folly." The song below generalizes the contrast.

I sing the British Seaman's praise;
A theme renown'd in story;
It well deserves more polish'd lays;
Oh! 'tis your boast and glory.
When mad brain'd war spreads death around
By them you are protected;
But when in peace the nation's found,
These bulwarks are neglected.
Then, Oh! protect the hardy tar;
Be mindful of his merit;
And when again your plung'd in war,
He'll shew his daring spirit.//
When thickest darkness covers all,
Far on the trackless ocean:
When lightnings dart, when thunders roll,
And all is wild commotion:
When o'er the bark the white topp'd waves,
With boist'rous sweep are rolling.
Yet coolly still, the whole he braves,
Untam'd amidst the howling.
(Then, Oh! protect &c)
When deep immers'd in sulphurous smoke,
He feels a glowing pleasure;
He loads his gun, he cracks his joke,
Elated beyond measure.
Though fore and aft the blood-stain'd deck
Should lifeless trunks appear;
Or should the vessel float a wreck,
The Sailor knows no fear.
(Then, Oh! protect & c)//
When long becalm'd in southern brine,
Where scorching beams assail him;
When all the canvas hangs supine,
And food and water fail him;
Then oft he dreams of Britain's shore,
Where plenty still is reigning;
They call the watch--his rapture's o'er,
He sighs--but scorns complaining.
(Then, Oh! & c)
Or burning on that noxious coast,
Where death so oft befriends him;
Or pinch'd by hoary Greenland frost,
True courage still attends him:
No claim can this eradicate;
He glories in annoyance;
He fearless braves the storms of fate,
And bids grim death defiance.
(Then, Oh! protect & c)//
Why should the man who knows no fear,
In peace then be neglected?
Behold him move along the pier,
Pale, meagre, and dejected!
Behold him begging for employ!
Behold him disregarded!
That view the anguish in his eye
And say, are Tars rewarded?
(Then, Oh! protect & c)
To them your dearest rights you owe;
In peace then would you starve them?
What say ye Britain's sons--oh! no!
Protect them and preserve them.
Shield them from poverty and pain,
'Tis policy to do it,
Or when grim war shall come again,
Oh! Britons, ye may rue it!
(Then, Oh! protect & c)

29.5 x 26 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (791.10.1.2)

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

The ROGUISH BOY

R. Houston pinxt. I. Jones fecit

Published as the Act directs Octr 1, 1791 by J. Jones, No. 75, Great Portland Street, London

A boy talks to an old woman, whose fixed gaze indicates she may be blind, as he reaches into her basket to steal a piece of fruit.

32.5 x 25 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (791.10.1.1)