The Early Modern Commons

A grotesque racist caricature of a buxom black woman in a white dress decorated with flowers and a bonnet with ribbons, grinning at the viewer and saying ‘Don’t you think you Fancy me now Massa’. Probably inspired by the “High Life in Philadelphia”...

A collection of pictorial conundrum cards from various unidentified sets of cards trimmed from larger sheets of etched images along with a single drawing signed “R. Ck.” suggesting it is his work on the largest set (incomplete) of 19 cards. The other...

An example of the “line and dot” caricature. Title: Dottator et lineator loquitur. Publication: [London] : Published Feb. 1, 1817 at R. Ackermanns, 101 Strand, [1 February 1817] Catalog Record 817.02.01.01 Acquired July 2021

Portrait of the elderly Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, whole length, sitting on a chair, its back carved with a scallop shell; he holds a book in his right hand with his left hand in his waistcoat. To his right is a small side table with a quill pen in...

“A huge bull, snorting fire, rushes with lowered head towards a French fort (left) from which cannon-balls descend upon him. Beneath the fort sansculottes on one knee fire at the bull while standing French soldiers, correctly dressed, also fire. On...

The Colonial Williamsburg site contains an interesting example of ‘The Comical Hotch-Potch – or, the Alphabet Turn’d Posture-Master.’ Some interesting detail about the print is given on the Jennie MacDonald site, which describes the alphabet...

A collection of 24 proof sheets, mostly eight images per sheet, surrounded by typographic border. The images range from individual animals, such as sloth, sheep dog, ass, lion and tiger, to small country scenes by Bewick or in his style, to battledowrs...

OK, another Carington Bowles print, but this one based on a painting by Robert Dighton rather than by John Collet. It is generally just given the title of  ‘A Comical Case’ but as an alternative this verse is sometimes added, giving an explanation...

Maybe you have noticed a theme: coloured mezzotints published by Carington Bowles  and based on original paintings by John Collet. This one is The Victim, and as before I am showing two differently coloured versions. First up, the one held by the Museum...

Another Carington Bowles print, this time based on a painting by John Collet and shown courtesy of the British Museum: It shows the scene in a tavern where half a dozen men are eagerly  jostling to attract the attention of the attractive woman behind...

A nice mezzotint by Carington Bowles, dating from 1771 and shown courtesy of the British Museum: It is entitled “Hi! Ho! These late hours will soon destroy me” and shows a fashionably dressed lady –  a prostitute –  sitting down after a late...

If there is one caricaturist I love more than Thomas Rowlandson it has to be James Gillray – and  I  feel I should mention one site which really helps understand this wonderful, vituperative and often scandalous artist. It belongs to Jim Sherry and...

I came across this interesting image on the Wellcome Collection site. It was etched by George Cruikshank and published by Thomas Tegg in December 1819 and has the title “Villagers shooting out their Rubbish”. It shows three grinning yokels pushing...

A group portrait of various doctors and quacks, including Mrs Mapp, Dr. Joshua Ward and John Taylor. A version of the print also published with lettering “The company of undertakers”. The three named quacks occupy the top, twelve other ‘doctors’...

I rather like this reminder of how the River Thames had made London into a thriving fishing port two centuries ago. This Rowlandson  image appeared on 18 September 1810 and shows the area around Billingsgate market not as some huge industrial dockside...

Vicars were often shown as being mercenary and corrupt – interested only in money and in collecting tithes from their parishioners. First up, a slightly different story, entitled The Old Dog’s Legacy and appearing in 1800: The writing underneath...

The Lewis Walpole site has this mezzotint of what is described as “an exact representation of the depositing the body of her late Majesty Queen Caroline in the family vault at Brunswick, Augt. 24, 1821 : with the Revd. J.W.G. Wolff delivering her funeral...

Thomas Rowlandson always enjoyed showing the realities of life, contrasting the rather mundane pleasures of  life at home with the distinctly more heady pleasures of playing away from home. Here, a double scene, drawn by Rowlandson in February 1807 and...

A lovely caricature from Thomas Tegg’s “Caricature magazine, or Hudibrastic mirror”, drawn by George Woodward and engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. It was entitled ‘The Mother’s Hope’ and appeared on various occasions – this one, from 1808,...

Carrying on the theme of men of the cloth being seen as being more interested in matters carnal than matters theological, and ending with a dig at the sexual proclivities of the Prince of Wales, here are a trio of eighteenth century caricatures under...