print;
satirical print;
book-illustration
- Museum number
- 1855,0609.1939
- Title
- Object: Hieroglyphics
- Description
-
Satire from the Oxford Magazine, March 1769, on the Duke of Grafton and his government, their opposition to John Wilkes and their determination on the grounds that his early outlawry was still valid that he could not take his seat in the House of Commons. Wilkes is attacked by two ferocious bloodhounds, that on the left with the head of Sir Norton Fletcher and that on the right with Grafton’s head. Two supporters of Wilkes stand on the left: John Horne (afterwards Horne Tooke), wearing clerical dress, says “They know not what they do.” and the lawyer, John Glynn, says “There is no Precedent for this, either in Law or Equity! I declare it to be illegal”. On the right are three members of the government: from right to left, Henry Fox, with a fox’s head; the Duke of Bedford, with the body of a pig saying “Let us kill him, or he’ll blow our Secrets”; Lord Mansfield with the head and claws of a wolf, who says “If they don’t do for him we’ll all have at him”; a cleric with the legs of a deer or fox. 1769
Etching and engraving
- Production date
- 1769
- Dimensions
-
Height: 99 millimetres (image)
-
Width: 155 millimetres (image)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The illustration accompanies an essay entitled "Natural Hieroglyphics" concerning various monsters that concludes with a note that the author had sent the editor "a drawing of as remarkable a groupe, as any that can be met with in Aldrovandus".
In the case against Wilkes in the House of Commons, January and February 1769, he had been defended by Glynn and opposed by Norton; Wilkes was expelled from the House on 3 February 1769.
Stephens suggests, on the basis of his "peculiar nose" that the cleric supporting Grafton may be Beilby Porteus who became chaplain to the king in 1769.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1855
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1855,0609.1939