- Museum number
- 1868,0808.8342
- Title
- Object: Saluting the R-ts bomb uncovered on his birth day August 12th. 1816
- Description
-
An illustration to the lines below No. 12799. A scene in Horse Guards Parade, the Horse Guards forming a background on the left. The mortar, shorter and wider than the original, stands in the foreground; the Regent takes the place of the monster as its support; he kneels in a crouching attitude, his posterior covered by the mouth of the mortar (left), his face forms its base, resting on two small heads which take the place of the dogs (the watch-dogs of Geryon) in the original. These are Lord Yarmouth, full-face, and McMahon, in profile; the touch-hole is on the crown of his head; his arms, resting on the base, issue from the cylinder and take the place of the serpents; webbed wings resembling those of the original project from behind his arms.
On the extreme left stands Lord Eldon, holding the mace and the Purse of the Great Seal, with three ladies, the largest and most prominent being Lady Hertford, much décolletée and with a festooned skirt displaying her legs; the others are Mrs. Fitzherbert and Lady Jersey, standing on a 'Map of Jersey'. From their mouths float up the words:
'we come—let who dare call us Hags—
I come—I, Eldon I—"Old Bags"—'
Vansittart, in his Chancellor of the Exchequer's gown, stands on tiptoe on a block, peering with pursed lips into the muzzle of the mortar. He says:
'I, N—c—s V—t come
To humbly Kiss the Royal Bomb'
Wellesley Pole stands on the base of the mortar, leaning over it to push a pole down its mouth:
'I T—y W—ly, loyal soul—
Will take its measure with a Pole'
At the lower end (right) George Rose, holding a rose, pokes a long nose at the touch-hole:
'Behold I come—Old G—y R—e
And in the touchhole thrust my Nose'
Castlereagh stands on the extreme right, bowing with ingratiating deference towards the Regent's head:
'I, C—h will low beseech
To kiss a corner of the breech'
He wears long wide trousers, gathered at waist and ankle, see No. 12840. Behind the 'bomb' is a cloud of opaque smoke.
August 1816
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1816
- Dimensions
-
Height: 249 millimetres
-
Width: 350 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
See No. 12799, &c. For Lady Hertford see No. 11853, &c. The Regent's liaison with Lady Jersey ended in 1796, see No. 8983, &c. He deserted Mrs. Fitzherbert in 1811. Rose (1744-1818) was regarded as an arch-sinecurist, cf. No. 12781; for the agitation against sinecures, &c., cf. No. 12781, &c.
Advertised, 'Price 2s. . . . handsomely coloured . . .' on No. 12804.
Reid, No. 593. Cohn, No. 1953.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.8342