Billiards [graphic] / H. Bunbury Esqr. delint. ; Watson & Dickinson excudt.

London : Publish'd Novr. 15th, 1780, by Watson & Dickinson, No. 158 New Bond Street, [15 November 1780]

1 print : stipple engraving and etching ; sheet 30.3 x 40 cm

laid paper.

Sold at Strawberry Hill Sale, day viii, lot 50, to H.G. Bohn, £7.7.0 [London, 733]; from an undergraduate at King's College, through Scribner's, May 1952, to W.S. Lewis, $225.

"A game of billiards is being played on a table, one corner of which only is visible, so curiously elongated that it gives the impression of a triangular table. The two players stand by the corner of the table, the one who is about to make a stroke appears from his leanness, frogged coat, and long pigtail queue to be a Frenchman; he leans over the table in profile to the left, wearing pince-nez. His opponent watches him, standing on top-toe, his cue held over his left shoulder, his face screwed up in anxiety; he wears a bag-wig. A number of spectators look on with expressions of amusement or concern: on the right two men stand together grinning; on the left a man watches open-mouthed; behind the table a man watches with an expression of alarm, another takes cover behind him with a grin; a small boy stands beside them. In the foreground are two dogs, one, a greyhound, stands between the player's legs. On the wall behind the table is a rack of cues and two clock-faced scoring boards both pointing to the figure X. On the right is a door, on the left a small casement window. Pictures and prints decorate the wall (left to right): a print of Wilkes (bust) with two caps of liberty; a print of a nymph and satyr; a print of a man seated, three quarter length; a print of a man and woman whole-length; two framed landscapes."--British Museum online catalogue.

English

June 23, 2020

Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 5, no. 5803