Undated mezzotints U to Z

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

UNTITLED

The scene is a courtesan's bedroom with canopied bed and ornate carpet. A small table at the end of the bed holds a half empty wine bottle, two glasses, a knife, carved ham, and large crumpled cloth or napkin. A gentlemen seated in a chair kisses a young woman who sits on his left knee and raises her left leg to brush his side. Her breasts are bare and he covers one with his hand. She seems somewhat less absorbed than he, her left hand hand hangs languidly down at her side, her right arm draped over his shoulder. Behind them on the carpet, her small spaniel sleeps curled up before the door.

32 x 24.5 cm.
New York Public Library (MEZYRK)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

UNTITLED

A young woman in a low cut gown sprawls back against the arm of a stripped couch. A handsome gentleman stands over her with arms behind his back under his tails. One knee is propped on the couch between her immodestly spread knees. He appears to be speaking, she listens demurely. The gentlemen is dressed for hunting which may comment on the scene. His shotgun leans next to a window, curtained with Venetian blinds, behind him to left, in the alcove above a window seat. His two spotted hounds lie on the carpet on the far left, watching the couple intently. To the far right and front sits a round tea table, with a decanter and two small wine glasses.

32.5 x 25 cm.
New York Public Library (Anon und.)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

UNTITLED

Dobson pinx. I. Simon fec. I. Smith ex.

A lawyer (r.) richly dressed in black robes, pleated collar and cuffs, and flat hat stands in a field or road under a tree. He eats an oyster from a fork which he holds to his mouth, as he hands its shells to two men (l.), one lame, the other blind. The kneeling lame man extends his crutch toward the lawyer while behind him the blind man looks puzzled as he feels the shell with both hands. The kneeling man appears to be speaking, perhaps accusingly. The text below reads:

Blind Plaintiff, Lame Defendant
Share The Friendly Laws impartial Care,//
A Shell for Him, a Shell for Thee
The Middle is the Lawyers Fee.

The sense of this satiric parable is that the lawyer devours the meat from the oyster and leaves the shells for his clients, resembling A Sharp between Two Flats (BM 3762).

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

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

UNTITLED

A gentleman or footman shows two fashionably dressed young women down the stairs to their boat. The scene may be Vauxhall, a popular riverside pleasure garden, with Westminister Bridge in the background. Another gentleman stands with his back to the ladies behind.

33 x 25 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (colour, 785.0.19)

© The Metropolitan Museum of Art

UNTITLED

The image could be emblematic of plenty as in other images with that title, of a bountiful harvest or an autumn month. The central figure is a girl in plain dress holding a large sheaf of wheat. Beside her (l.) stands a girl carrying a basket of fruit. Behind one boy scrambles out on a limb for more apples, while another climbs a ladder, and a third carries a basket of apples on his head. Beside the young woman stands another large sheaf of wheat and a large basket with apples, grapes, and squash.

32 x 24.5 cm.
Metropolitan Museum (colour, 67.539.87)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

UNTITLED

A young dandy with a long queue and ornamented scabbard kneels imploringly at the feet of a lovely young woman as a maid fixes her hair. Her backdrop is a hanging curtain or tapestry. Two figures, perhaps parents, look on from each edge of the curtain, the woman with a cane (l.) and the man with a club (r.). Both look displeased.

31.5 x 25.2 cm.
New York Public Library (Satyr p.224)

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

UNTITLED [Dutch Interior]

An aged woman, stooped and supporting herself with a crutch, hands a drink or tray of food to a man who sits by a fireplace, hold a clay pipe. Both figures are smiling. Behind her (l.) another seated man looks back over his shoulder at a jug that sits on small table. Behind them on the wall hangs a ragged print that shows a single figure hauling on a line.

The YCBA impression is untitled with Dutch Interior printed on it matte.

23.5 x 17.8 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.779)

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

UNTITLED [Dutch Man Singing]

A heavily caricatured, wrinkled old man sings from a sheet of music he holds with both hands. He appears to be singing from the window of a public house, indicated by the vines and jug above. One man holds a candle to illuminate the sheet music and four other figures stand behind.

The YCBA impression is untitled but a handwritten note indicates that this is a "Dutch" man singing and that the image is "After A.V. Ostrade."

21.5 x 18.2 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.788)

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

UNTITLED [Girl Reading by Candlelight]

Resting her cheek on one hand, a young girl looks up pensively from the book she has been reading. Her face and the book are illuminated by the flame in a candle holder with reflector.

The YCBA impression is untitled but Girl Reading by Candlelight is printed on its matte.

19.2 x 25.3 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.782)

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

UNTITLED [Masqueraders]

A servant girl empties a chamber pot on a troupe of entertainers on the street below her window. These include, from left to right: a boy wearing a crown who dances and beats on a percussion piece; a older fat man with pointed cap, chin, and nose who also dances as he runs a bow across a grate; another man in a large cocked hat and ruffled collar who plays an instrument strung like a bass; a woman who sings from the ballad sheet she holds in one hand which is lighted by a candle in the other, and a small boy who waves a baton and holds the leash of a dog which also could be dancing as it looks back up at the musicians.

The impression at the YCBA is untitled though Masqueraders is printed on the matte. Notes indicate the engraving is by John Simon after Phillip Mercier.

24 x 17.3 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.1160)

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

UNTITLED [The Sleeping Woman]

A seated servant girl or bar maid sleeps with her head cradled in her arm on a table. The table also contains a candlestick with lighted candle, a decanter and a wine glass tipped on its side. Behind her a leering man with a feathered hat holds what appears a chamber pot above her head. He may be about to place it on her head like a helmet or pound on it to wake her. Behind them an owl sits atop an open door.

The YCBA impression is untitled with "The Sleeping Woman" inscribed only on the matte. Also printed is an attribution to an artist or engraver, "F. Mieris," probably Frans van Mieris, the seventeenth-century Dutch artist.

22.7 x 18.9 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.781)

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

UNTITLED [The Spinner]

An older woman sits turned right intent on a spindle from her spinning wheel. She works by candlelight which also illuminates parts of her spinning wheel resting on the table before her.

Though the impression at the YCBA is untitled, its matte bears the printed title, The Spinner, and it is catalogued as "Old Woman Repairing her Spinning Wheel." Though the image is Dutch in character, the size is consistent with other mezzotint drolls.

30.4 x 25.7 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.758)

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

UNTITLED [Woman Playing Violin]

An attractive young woman glances up as she plays her viola. She is elegantly dressed in a low cut gown and ruffled sleeves with pearls and feathers in her hair. Her music rests on the table and behind her an accompanist or music teacher plays a mandolin.

The impression at the YCBA is untitled with Woman Playing Violin inscribed on its matte. The size is unusual for the British market at the time and the print may be French or German.

24.5 x 18.5 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.740)

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

The VILLAGE MAGISTRATE

Hemskirk pinxt. W. Dickenson fecit.

This scene before a magistrate is engraved as a beast fable with all the figures in their suits, gowns, and dresses anthomorphized animals, the species of which is ambigous, possibly designed to leave the viewer uncertain as to whether a figure is cat, rat, or dog. The woman who is being sworn in with hand on Bible, appears feline. A judge who looks like a bearded monkey, sits at his bench ready to inscribe the testamony. One seated figure in a uniform coat is seated (r.) in an upholstered chair with arms, a similarly dressed man holds the Bible for the woman. A male figure looks on. Two others stand behind this group near the door. Near them, in the center background, a man in cloak and cowl, talks to a man in a dark suit who stands with both hands raised. Further back through the door in an antechamber, three other figures look on. The only human face is the oval portrait of a man over the door, a classical bust. Two monkeys, not enlarged to human scale like the other beasts, sit beside the magistrate's bench in male and female garb. The costuming is Dutch in character. The image is based on work by Egbert van Heemskerk, the Dutch artist active in England in the court of William III.

29.7 x 35.7 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (772.3.0.1)

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

WE'RE ALL IN THE SUDS

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

A man holding a newspaper, the "Gazette Extraordinary," in his right hand and a shaving bowl, razor, and soap in the other looks to the left. He wears a wig slightly too small for him and his profile with its short, pug nose, and prominent eyes and teeth, suggests either a monkey or a skull. He could be a barber and if so may relate to other political barbers such as The Patriotick Barber and The Patriotic Barber of New York. The figure is engraved in an oval and is from a watercolour by Robert Dighton.

13.5 x 11 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (793.0.16)

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

THE WELCH-MAN AND HIS GOAT

In this caricature of crude rusticity, a portly Welshman sits at a table with wine bottle, glass, and clay pipe, and points with pride at the goat (l.) that stands by his side. He wears a large, flat, cocked hat with a leek pinned to it.

13.4 x 11.3 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (780.0.95)

YOUTHFUL AMUSEMENT

P. Mercier pinxt C. Spooner fecit

London. Printed for Robt. Sayer in Fleet Street

A young boy smiles and holds out his left hand to show the little top spinning in his palm. He holds the string in his right hand lifted above his head by the follow-through from the spin.

Cat: Chaloner Smith, p. 882.

15 x 11.2 cm. Colonial Williamsburg (colour, 1958-354)