The cunning and happy family [graphic] / J.L. Marks fect.

London : Pubd. by [...], [approximately November 1822]

1 print : etching ; sheet 25 x 34.5 cm

wove paper.

Sold by London's Dulau and Company to the New York City bookseller Ernest R. Gee in 1928. Earlier ownership by W.E. Gladstone is suggested by a manuscript note from Dulau formerly laid into the front the first volume (now in the object file), which states that "These came from the Gladstone Library at Court Hey, Broad Green. The manuscript notes written below the caricatures are in the handwriting of W.E. Gladstone."

"George IV sits on Lady Conyngham's lap, kissing her amorously; he wears a dressing-gown with ungartered stockings. Lady Elizabeth (right) bends over him, supporting his elbow, while her sister, Lady Maria Harriet, stands behind the sofa, close to her mother. All three women are in evening dress. In the foreground (right) Lord Francis, tall and fashionable, stands directed to the right, looking furtively over his right shoulder. He holds a large purse, and is slipping coins from it into his trouser-pocket; he says: Well as this Purse must go to Knight-on [the K scored through] I'll make the most of it. At his feet is an open book: Lord C . . . Advice to his Son * Get money . . . it Honest if you can--. The words are partly hidden by a smaller book: Cunningham Poems. Behind, on the extreme left, and directed to the left, Lord Conyngham, with small horns and large ass's ears, sits on a chamber-pot inscribed Chamberl . . . [ain], holding a long wand of office. He scowls over his shoulder at his family, saying, It's a Blessing to be Happy and Contented. Behind him is a (pictorial) fire-screen mounted on a pole which terminates in a crown: Conyngham crawls on hands and knees, blindfolded and bound; his wife sits on his back, with the King on her lap, embracing her. Behind the closely grouped heads of the King and the three ladies are hanging bookshelves, two of the books being open: A Lecture upon Horns facing a stag's antlers, and Jerry Sneak [the hen-pecked husband in Foote's Mayor of Garratt]. On the floor in the foreground are an open book: A Mothers advice to her Daughters [cf. British Museum Satires 14401] and a paper: A List of Choice Plays She stoops to Conquer. All in the Wrong. Bold stroke for a Wife. Every Man in his Humour--Careless Husband. Way to keep Him, Tender Husband, School for Wives [scored through], Inconstant &c &c &c."--British Museum online catalogue.

English

October 07, 2024

Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 10, no. 14404