Publication
[London] : Pubd. June 1st, 1796, by H. Humphrey, New Bond Street, [1 June 1796]
Local Notes
Temporary local subject terms: Interiors: bedrooms -- Furniture: close-stools -- Coronets: earl's coronet -- Cuckolds -- Symbols: coronets with horns -- Emblems: Princess of Wales's coronet -- Furnishing: bed curtain -- Military uniforms: Prince of Wales's Light Horse uniform -- Pictures amplifying subject: Cupid with an old sow -- Furnishings: carpets -- Obesity.
Provenance
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.
Summary
"A scene in Lady Jersey's bedroom. Lady Jersey as an old hag (cf. BMSat 8806) lies in a magnificent bed. Lord Jersey, carrying the Prince of Wales on his back, supports himself by resting his hands on the foot of the bed. The Prince, very fat in his famous Light Horse uniform (see BMSat 8800), wearing helmet, gloves, and spurred boots, and the Garter ribbon, holds Jersey's scraggy queue in the manner of a rein; he holds up two fingers, saying (as in BMSats 8809, 8816), "Buck! Buck! - how many Horns do I hold up?" Jersey, who is very thin, leers towards the Prince out of the corners of his eyes, saying, "E'en as many as you please!" Both are in profile to the right; the Prince's eyes are hidden by the brim of his helmet as in BMSat 8816. The Princess's coronet, with its triple plume, is conspicuous on a circular close-stool (left) which is decorated with a large 'J' and earl's coronet. On the wall above it, in an ornate oval frame, is a picture of Cupid piping to an old sow who dances on her hind-legs. The fringed pelmet of the bed is decorated with earl's coronets from which spring horns."--British Museum online catalogue.
References
Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 7, no. 8811
Wright, T. Works of James Gillray, the caricaturist, p. 208