Undated mezzotints E to H

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

AN ELECTION DINNER quere No Bribery a tale

Two revelers sit at the central round table, one raising a cannister of beer, the other cutting a slice from a large ham. A loaf of bread sits next to the ham. Behind them, stand two other men, one in an officer's uniform pouring a glass of wine while the other stands by. On either side of them are two smaller, more wretched looking men. One sits far left in the back by himself at a little table. He appears to be reaching to catch the coattail of one of the standing men, perhaps to get his attention. The other smaller figure kneels front and far right with his hat in his hand.

17.6 x 23.8 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (770.0.63)

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

The Engineer

Colson Pinxt Colson Fecit

A gentleman, possibly an officer, touches off a miniature cannon with a fiery blast and puff of smoke. A spaniel leaps up in alarm and a small boy (r.) watches from behind the gentleman's coat. The scene is viewed though a window in a stone wall that looks into what may be a courtyard.

31 x 25.3 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.845)

Courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

The FAIR LADY working TAMBOUR

Printed for Carington Bowles, Map & Printseller at No. 69 in St Pauls Church Yard, London

In her drawing room, a beautiful young lady holding a needle or tapestry hook is intent on her embroidery stretched on a tambour or circular embroidery frame. A canary, whose cage is visible in corner, perches on the end of the tambour. A small spaniel rests on footstool. A buddha and Chinese vase rest on a chest behind (r.) and a window opens outside left.

32.7 x 24.9 cm.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (colour, 1955-393), Lewis Walpole Library (764.0.11), Metropolitan Museum (colour, no title or inscription)

Courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

A Female Philosopher in Extasy solving a Problem

On the table is a globe and open volume of Euclid's Elements. A young woman in a pleated hat, obviously pleased with herself, clasps her hands and and looks up exhilerated. The door is open and a curious man, perhaps a servant, looks in. Beside the woman is a fireplace.

31.8 x 24.8 cm.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (1973-250)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

THE FIDLER

A smiling boy with buck teeth wearing a feathered cap stares intently at the score on the table before him as he plays a violin. In the upper left, a grinning man glances in through a leaded glass window. He may be holding his hands over his ears.

15.3 x 11.4 cm.
Library of Congress (PC2+n.d)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

Flemish Courtship

London. Printed for R. Sayer, No. 53, Fleet Street

A bearded, older gentleman in feathered cap (r.)watches intently as a pretty young girl (l.) tries the glass of wine he has just poured for her from a large ceramic jug. She may be a serving maid, the crumbled cloth on the table her dustrag or napkin. His dress indicates he is a merchant or craftsman.

14 x 11.5 cm.
New York Public Library (MEZYRK), Lewis Walpole Library (760.0.42)

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

The FOND DOVES

203
Printed for Carington Bowles, Map & Printseller at No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London

The fond doves may be the two birds that flutter on the cage (r.) or the two young women. One (r.), who may be a visitor, has a striking coiffure of ringlets and curls and wears multiple stands of pearls. The other (l.), who is dressed more plainly in the morning cap, snuggles close to the other and offers her a peach or apple.

32.2 x 24.9 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (770.0.5)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

The FRENCH MACCARONI LED ASTRAY

A macaroni or dandy resists as two young women, one on each side, entice him. One (l.) with a low-cut neckline clasps his arm with both hands. He looks toward her as he spreads his hands, as if in protest, while the other woman caresses his chin.

The macaroni may be French or he may be an English dandy who affects French manners. The image echoes numerous others that show a macaroni set upon in an English street. See, for example, An English Jack-Tar giving Monsieur a Drubbing (1779).

13.5 x 10.1 cm.
Library of Congress (PC2+n.d.)

Courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

The GIN SHOP DISPLAYED

Printed for Carington Bowles, Map & Printseller, No. 69 in St Pauls Church Yard, London

Four figures, three women and a boy gather about the gin shop proprietess who is serving behind a bar. A comparatively young woman leans back to swig a shot of gin. Beside her, an older woman points emphatically across the bar. The gin shop landlady, distracted by her, misses the glass she holds and pours the gin instead into the basket of a woman who waits, holding a glass. In the confusion, the boy reaches to filch the money from the bar. The verse tells the tale:

What's news? great News says Blab while Polly swills,
The Raptured Landlady her Liquor spills,//
The Match Boy artfully the Money steals,
The Basket Woman great surprise reveals.

The companion may be The Chandler's Shop Gossips, or Wonderful News, also at Colonial Williamsburg.

23.7 x 35.6 cm.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (1959-431)

The GOOD HOUSE-WIFE

Printed for Carington Bowles at St. Pauls Church Yard, London

A plainly dressed woman sits at a desk or table with pen and inkwell checking a sheet of paper or bill against the book she holds in her lap. The scene suggests she may be checking recent purchases against her household inventory. Several bundles lie on the floor with a basket of bottles. Two bottles from the basket rest beside it. The verse reads:

Woman, when virtuous, free from Sloth & Vice,
Greater by far, than Rubies is her price: //
Heaven crowns her Labour with a plenteous Store,
To feed her Household, and relieve the Poor.

31.8 x 24.8 cm.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (1958-357)

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

The GOOD HOUSEWIFE, WASHING her FEET

Printed for Carington Bowles, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London

The housewife in housedress and cap sits on a bench and looks up as she washes her foot in a basin. Beside on a stool sits a pitcher of water. Behind her is a cabinet and mirror and other simple housewares.

With this title, the impression domesticates the saucier air of The Laundress (1760) by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805). The original painting is in the collection of the Getty Museum.

13 x 11 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (770.0.134)

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

The Good Man at the HOUR of DEATH

13
London. Printed for Robert Sayer, Map & Printseller, No. 53 Fleet Street

The good man reclines on his deathbed and looks up to receive an angel who reaches toward him with an hour glass. In the background is a reader's bookcase with volumes leaning and stacked. A large Bible rests on the chair or table beside the bed. The inscription reads: Let me die the death of the righteous & let my last end be like his. Num. XXIII, vers. 10. A reissue by Laurie & Whittle, "Published 12th May, 1794" includes the verse:

When from this Life Heaven calls the JUST away,
Serene he does the pleasing Call obey. //
Of all Offence he finds his Conscience clear,
And all is Hope, and nothing is to fear.

Elizabeth Barker, Assistant Curator in Drawings and Prints, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, writes:
"The Good Man at the Hour of Death and The Bad Man at the Hour of Death reproduce two lost paintings by Francis Hayman dating to the late 1740s; the paintings were commissioned by Jonathan Tyers to complement the macabre decorative scheme of his (personal) estate of Denbies, near Dorking, in Surrey. (The project is described in detail by Brian Allen in the July-Sept 1981 issue of the Journal of Garden History, pp. 215-238.) The Walpole Library mezzotints illustrated in your catalogue appear to be copies after T. Chambers' engravings, published by Boydell in 1783 (illustrated in Brian Allen's Yale 1987 monograph, pp. 140-141.)"

14 x 11.4 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library

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

The BAD MAN at the HOUR of DEATH

14
London. Printed for Robert Sayer, Map & Printseller, No. 53 Fleet Street

The dying man rouses himself from his sofa and looks away as he raises his left hand to ward off a demon armed with a spear. A bookcase forms the background (l.), well ordered compared to that of the good man as if the books here have not been disturbed or read. In the foreground a round table is overturned with goblets spilled upon the floor. The subtext reads: For the wages of Sin is Death. Rom. VI ver. 23. A reissue by Laurie & Whittle, "Published 12th May 1794" includes the following verse:

Lo, to what End a Life of Luxury brings!
The Gout's accute & Death's accuter Stings!
Mispent his Time, the sinner dreads to die,
And fain he would the King of Terrors fly.

14 x 11.6 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (771.0.28-29)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

A HAM SANDWICH BETWEEN TWO SLICES OF Thin BREAD & BUTTER

A short, stout, buxom woman walks hand-in-hand between two tall, slender gentlemen, dressed in the style of the 1790's, one (l.) carrying a flat black hat, the other a cocked hat. The inside of the cocked hat is inscribed "Ayres" and below it "15 Fleet Market." The wall behind has a patterned wallpaper and a large mirror, upper right. A candelabra hangs upper left.

35.3 x 25.3 cm.
Library of Congress (PC2+n.d.)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

THE HEARTY FELLOW

A large, jolly man portrayed chest up smiles out at the viewer. He is simply dressed with a soft felt cap that nearly covers his eyes. He carries a clay pipe in a thin hat band.

15.3 x 11.5 cm.
Library of Congress (PC2+n.d.)