- Museum number
- 1857,1222.89
- Title
-
Object: A fancy sketch
-
Series: Political Sketches
- Description
-
No. 338. Two men engaged in a fist-fight in centre: the one to left (Daniel O'Connell) punching the other (Lord Althorp); to left, a man holding up a bottle in his left hand (Richard Lalor Shiel); a man standing to far left watching in excitement (Edward Southwell Ruthven); behind the loser two of his supporters (Thomas Spring Rice, Edward John Littleton); to far right, John Bull holding a watch; behind him partial profile of a man calling for the looser to be taken away (Lord Brougham); three men standing in centre background, engaged in conversation (Thomas Langlois Lefroy, Sir Robert Peel, Sir Robert Harry Inglis); more spectators watching from the background. 11 August 1834
Lithograph
- Production date
- 1834
- Dimensions
-
Height: 282 millimetres
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Width: 392 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Text from 'An Illustrative Key to the Political Sketches of H.B.', London 1841:
Among the professors and admirers of pugilism, the science is frequently mentioned by the delicate term "The Fancy" - why, it would puzzle the whole fraternity to explain. Farther, it is needful to state, that "a cross" is a term which signifies a fight, in which, though the combatants and their seconds appear to be animated by no other desire than that the best man should win, it is, nevertheless, previously settled which of the two shall win, and how the loser shall appear to yield to superior strength and science, when, in fact, he gives up by collusion and not by collision.
The stake for which the Government appeared to be contending was a certain portion of the Irish Tithe Bill, which Mr. Shaw, Mr. Irton, and other opposition-members, alleged that Government did not sincerely support, but voted one way, while they wished and allowed the question to be carried the other. The sketch is executed with great fidelity to the general appearance of a prize-ring. Mr. O'Connell and Lord Althorp, two heavy weights, are the principals; the former, pushing on for victory with a determined look, while the latter drops his arms and pretends to be beaten, though evidently without a scratch. Mr. O'Connell's second is his colleague, Mr. Ruthven; and his bottle-holder, Mr. Shiel. Lord Althorp is waited on by Mr. Littleton and Mr. Spring Rice, the former of whom, in the secret of "the cross," is crying out "we are beat; we give in." The three conservatives in the middle, Mr. Lefroy, Sir Robert Peel, and Sir H. Inglis, have discovered the trick, and confess themselves taken in. John Bull holds his watch, as umpire of the fight, and Lord Brougham, coming in from behind, as if he were a disinterested spectator, assists the deception, by begging that the beaten man may be taken away.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1857
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1857,1222.89
