print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0612.1211
- Title
- Object: Fielding's myrmidons spoiling Bob Booty's morning draught
- Description
-
Three Bow Street officers burst open the door (right) of a room where three persons are sitting up in bed, much alarmed at their entry. The highwayman or burglar in the centre, wearing a night-cap, spills the contents of a punch-bowl held in his left hand; over his arm is a netted purse containing coins. The two girls wear mob-caps, one (right) seizes the man's arm in terror, the other (left) takes up one of a pair of pistols lying by the bed (right). On the ground lie top-boots, a mask, &c, the man's coat lies across the foot of the bed, on it is a bank-note. The constables are forcing backwards furniture with which the door had been barricaded; a chair, placed on a table, is falling over. On the wall is a framed print of Jack Sheppard, shackled and sitting on the ground in prison. The foremost Bow Street officer, wearing a striped waistcoat, has a sword under his arm; behind him are two men with constable's staves. 1 May 1781
Mezzotint
- Production date
- 1781
- Dimensions
-
Height: 257 millimetres
-
Width: 352 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935)
Sir John Fielding died in Sept. 1780.
(Supplementary Information)
A newspaper cutting is pasted to the verso, with an announcement of 1769 by Sir John Fielding.
Christopher Lennox-Boyd lists a later state, showing wear, with the title altered to 'Bow Street myrmidons ...'
Sale catalogue listings
Carington Bowles, 1784, p. 117 no. 436, among 'The following 34 new and elegant humorous Prints, are finely executed from the capital Paintings of that eminent Artist the late John Collet, Esq. in the Possession of Carington Bowles. Each print is 10 inches wide and 14 inches deep. When framed and glazed they make a handsome Appearance and Fashionable Furniture, and are always kept ready finished. Price 2s. plain, or finely coloured from the paintings, 3s. each.'; 1790, p. 107 no. 453
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0612.1211