Joint stock street [graphic] / Woodward del. ; Rowlandson 1808.

[London] : Pubd. by Thos. Tegg, March 10th, 1808, N. 111 Cheapside, [10 March 1808]

1 print : etching ; plate mark 24.9 x 36 cm, on sheet 26 x 37 cm

wove paper

From a collection in fourteen volumes compiled by Francis Harvey and dispersed at auction, Sotheby, London, June 1900. Sold at Sotheby, London, 12 March 1919. Bequest of Hugh Dudley Auchincloss to Yale University Library, 1981. Bound by Riviere & Son in three-quarters red morocco with gold tooling and gold lettering on spine.

"Simple-minded people gaze up at placards inviting subscriptions to unsound companies. A high wall runs from a house partly visible on the extreme left, to the street corner, enclosing a large building placarded Hospital for Incurables Supported by Voluntary Subscribers [i.e. for victims of speculation mania]. On the right are old-fashioned houses, one of which is alined with a church, the scene suggesting one of the older parts of the City of London with seventeenth-century houses. The high wall on the left is covered with large bills at which the gullible are gazing: [1] Doctors Company--Capital One Million divided into Shares at -- Pr Share--the Advantages incalculable No Charge for Emetics opening draughts Injections &c-- [signed] Sam Sexton Clerk, [2] Patent Coffins provided on the shortest notice --No Surgeons Admitted--. [3] Genuine Milk Company free from Chalk Poison Water &--. [4] Company of Menders--Open to both Sxes in shares at--pr Share. None to be Admitted but who can give undeniable proofs of mending either their wives or Husbands Neighbours or Friends and lastly but most particularly Themselves. [5] Company of Scavengers Nightman [sic] and all imposters to be sent to the House of Correction. [6] Company of White Washers NB No Lawyers admitted [cf. British Museum Satires Nos. 11269, 11272]. [7] More Advantages-- A New Cabbage and Potatoe Compy Warrented Genuine No cooking required saves time and trouble 5s each Share. [8] Match and Tinder Compy Capital 2 Millions five farthings each Share. [9] Blacking Company. On the opposite side of the wide irregular street is a low-grade barber's shop, with the barber shaving a customer in the doorway. Outside the door his dwarfish assistant sharpens a razor on a grindstone. Above the door is a large tilted board: Tim, Slashem Barber and Perriwig Maker--begs leave to inform the patronizers of Merit--that he means to form a New Company of Mowers of Beards having discovered a New Machine to Shave 60 men in a minute, to comb oil and powder their wigs in the Bargain. NB. Bleeding and Teeth drawn gratis. The striped pole slants forward above the board. At a casement window under the roof a woman is washing; a cat prowls on the tiles. This is a corner-house, its (invisible) side facing Bubble Alley, where the corner-house has a large placard: Peter Puff--Manufacturer of Deal Boards--without Knots from genuine Saw dust &c. At right angles to this is a narrow street receding towards the church. On this are more bills and a projecting lantern: Subscri[bers or ptions] taken in here. Spectators gaze at the bills in the foreground, middle distance, and background. On the left a fat 'cit' and his taller and more fashionable wife walk purposefully; she dangles a reticule, his hand is deep in a pocket, they are clearly deluded subscribers. A yokel and his wife gaze up at the 'Milk Company' advertisement. On the right a countryman on horseback followed by his dog stares up at the barber's notice, as does a bearded Jew carrying a sack (of old clothes)."--British Museum online catalogue, description of a later state.

English

December 08, 2016

Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 8, no. 11441