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Political-ravishment, or, The old lady of Threadneedle-Street in danger!
Title
Political-ravishment, or, The old lady of Threadneedle-Street in danger! [graphic] / Js. Gy. d. & fect.
Publication
[London] : Pubd. May 22d, 1797, by H. Humphrey, St. James's Street, [22 May 1797]
Physical Description
1 print : etching ; sheet 26 x 37 cm
Medium
wove paper
Local Notes
Temporary local subject terms: Bank of England -- Personifications: Bank of England as an old lady of Threadneedle Street -- Coffers -- Allusion to loans -- Pocket picking.
Notes
Title etched below image.
Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Exhibited: "Character Mongers, or, Trading in People on Paper in the Long 18th Century" at The Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, CT, October 2016 - January 2017.
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
"The 'Old Lady' is a thin old harridan, dressed entirely in 'One' pound notes, and seated on an iron-studded treasure-chest inscribed 'Bank of England', fastened by two heavy padlocks. She shrieks and throws up her skinny arms at Pitt's advances: he has taken a long stride towards her from the right, his right hand round her waist; his left dips into a cavernous pocket and takes out guineas. Their profiles almost touch, and he appears about to kiss her. She shrieks: "Murder! - murder! - Rape! - murder! - O you Villain! - what have I kept my Honor untainted so long, to have it broke up, by you at last ? - O murder! - Rape! - Ravishment! - Ruin! - Ruin! - Ruin!!!" Pitt's hat lies on the ground; beneath it is a scroll headed 'Loans'. A lightly sketched arc of the rotunda of the Bank forms a background."--British Museum online catalogue.
Variant and related titles
Old lady of Threadneedle-Street in danger
Format
Images
Language
English
Added to Catalog
March 28, 2008
References
Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 7, no. 9016
Wright, T. Works of James Gillray, the caricaturist, p. 220
Subjects (Local Yale)
Genre/Form
Satires (Visual works) - England - 1797.
Etchings - England - London - 1797.
Watermarks (Paper) - J. Whatman.
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