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A Whet on the Road - or English and French Postillions

• Object type

  • satirical print
  • print

• Museum number

  2010,7081.1439

• Title (object)

  • A Whet on the Road - or English and French Postillions

• Description

  Three men stand in the doorway of the coach-house of a posting inn, through which is seen the courtyard with a post-chaise. The elderly French postilion (left) drinks from a large tankard, holding bones and meat in his left hand. He is caricatured; he wears a cocked hat with tricolour cockade, laced waistcoat, and large boots. His hair is in a long queue. The young English postilion, wearing neat riding-dress with well-fitting boots, and fashionable double-breasted waistcoat, points at him, turning with a smile to a stable-hand (right) who leans grinning against the door-post. Both postilions have short whips with thick plaited lashes, but the lash of the Frenchman is much the longer. On the wall is a bill headed 'Dover \ Post Coach'. 2 January 1792
  Mezzotint

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• Producer name

  • Published by: Carington Bowles
  • After: Robert Dighton

• School/style

  • British

• Date

  • 1792

• Production place

  • Published in: London
  • (Europe,British Isles,England,London)

• Materials

  • paper

• Technique

  • mezzotint

• Dimensions

  • Height: 350 millimetres
  • Width: 248 millimetres

• Inscriptions

  • • Inscription Content

      Lettered below the image with the title and 'Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, No.69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London. // 615 // Published as the Act directs, 2 Jan.y 1792.'

• Curator's comments

  States [recorded in the Lennox-Boyd database]
  (i) proof before letters, except those within the image
  (ii) lettered with the title and 'Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, No.69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London. // 615 // Published as the Act directs, 2 Jan.y 1792.'

  The design is by Dighton (AVG)

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• Bibliography

  • BM Satires 8224
  • Russell 1926 undescribed
  • Chaloner Smith 1883 undescribed

• Location

  Not on display (British Mezzotints Ring-binder Large)

• Subjects

  • satire
  • french

• Acquisition name

  • With contribution from: British Museum Friends
  • With contribution from: National Heritage Memorial Fund
  • With contribution from: The Art Fund
  • With contribution from: Friends of Prints and Drawings
  • With contribution from: Mrs Charles Wrightsman
  • With contribution from: Michael Marks Charitable Trust
  • Purchased from: Hon Christopher Lennox-Boyd

• Acquisition date

  2010

• Acquisition notes

  Acquired with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Friends of the British Museum, the Art Fund, Mrs Charles Wrightsman, the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, and numerous individual donors.

• Department

  Prints & Drawings

• Registration number

  2010,7081.1439