print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.12790
- Title
- Object: The British Spread Eagle.
- Description
-
The Princess of Wales and the Regent, walking together, bend in opposite directions as in Bunbury's 'A Modern Spread Eagle', No. 6140, and in No. 11127. The Prince, plump and debonair, bends to the right; he holds out a full bottle, saying, "I'll to my Bottle my Marchioness [Lady Hertford] my Countess [cf. No. 12173] my Dears." Three women watch him invitingly from an arbour among trees on the extreme right The Princess, handsome and dignified, holding out an oval miniature of Princess Charlotte, says: "Then I'll to my Child my only Comfort." The young Princess, a pendant to the Prince's ladies, hurries forward, saying, "The Child that feels not for a Mothers woes can ne'er be call'd a Briton." The only point of contact between the Princess and her husband is a circular reticule dangling from her left wrist, on which is a bust portrait of the Regent inscribed 'my Ridicule' [cf. No. 11874]. There is a landscape background. After the title: 'Presented to the Northern Monarchs as a Model for their New National Banner, in consequence of the General Peace'.
June 1814.
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1814
- Dimensions
-
Height: 240 millimetres
-
Width: 338 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
The return of the Princess of Wales to the limelight after the period of discredit began with her exclusion from Drawing Rooms held on 2 and 8 June, and was exploited by the Opposition, helped by the opportunities given by the festivities in honour of the royal visitors. See a paragraph in the 'Morning Herald' (see No. 12207) of 27 May quoted in the Commons, on the '"Opposition" Councils ... on the "well-fomented" variance between her M- and the Princess of W- respecting the well-advised non-appearance of the latter at the next "Drawing-room"...'. 'Parl. Deb.' xxvii. 1039-42 (1 June 1814). Lady Bessborough (4 June 1807) compares the Prince and Princess of Wales leaving the Queen's assembly to 'the print of the Spread Eagle'. 'Corr. of Lord G. L. Gower', 1916, ii. 251. See Nos. 12272, 12278, 12280, 12291; cf. Nos. 12081, 12194.
Reid, No. 337. Cohn, No. 959.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.12790