A keen-sighted politician finding out the British conquests [graphic] / Js. Gy. desn. et fect.

[London] : Pubd. June 8th, 1795, by H. Humphrey, N. 37 New Bond Street, [8 June 1795]

1 print : etching ; plate mark 32.9 x 25.1 cm, on sheet 35 x 27 cm

wove paper

Temporary local subject terms: Furniture: chairs -- Inkstands -- Maps -- Shortsightedness -- Pictures amplifying subject: View of the Treasury building -- Pictures amplifying subject: Britannia's chariot -- Literature: reference to John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

Title etched below image.

From a collection in twelve volumes probably compiled by Francis Harvey and sold at auction, Sotheby, London, June 1900. 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.

"A companion print to BMSat 8659. Grenville seated in an ornate armchair peers near-sightedly at a map of 'The Globe' in two hemispheres which he holds up to his face. The eastern hemisphere, at which he is not looking, shows an exaggeratedly large tract of 'French Conquests'. His posteriors and legs, very solid in BMSat 8659, are thin. He sits before a light rectangular table on which are ink-stand and pens and two books, 'Court Calender' and 'Locke on Human Understanding' (as in BMSat 8659). On the wall are two pictures, the subjects merely indicated: 'The Treasury' (left) shows the arched gate and stone wall of many satires; 'Brittania Triumphant': Britannia seated with spear and shield. A patterned carpet completes the design. Grenville fixes his attention on scarcely visible successes in the W. Indies, ignoring the French conquests in Europe. The 'Court Calender' and 'The Treasury' indicate eagerness for the perquisites of office, cf. BMSat 8061 (1792)."--British Museum online catalogue.

English

November 21, 2007

Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 7, no. 8656

Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834 > Caricatures and cartoons.