- Museum number
- 1859,0316.111
- Title
- Object: A scene at the London Museum Piccadilly,-or- A peep at the spoils of ambition, taken at the battle of Waterloo- being a new tax on John Bull for 1816 &c &c.
- Description
-
Above the design, as a second title: 'A Swarm of English Bees hiving in the Imperial Carriage!!—Who would have thought it!!! !!! !!!—'. Napoleon's carriage, as in No. 12702, is beset by vulgar sight-seers, but is seen from the opposite side, the box-seat being on the left. A wildly struggling crowd attempts to storm the carriage, dividing into two streams, one to enter it, the other (right) to climb on the top from behind. Those who are already inside kiss or flirt. A waggish man lies prone on the roof watching the fight to reach the door. A woman steps on the chest of a prostrate fop, sprawling across a woman, who cries "Oh! My Frill." A couple sit on the box; the man is dressed in a multi-caped long coat and a bell-shaped top-hat; he assumes the pose of a coachman, as if using a whip and holding imaginary reins, turning with a grin to his companion. A man standing below says to him: "You'r prime bang Up!!" (see No. 11700, &c.). A countryman, turning to his wife, points to the seat, saying "Look at Zaber Gashes." The box-seat is supported on a shallow box ticketed 'Box for the Iron [Bed]stead'.
On the extreme left is a small table on which is the box for a toilet set inscribed 'This Box contain'd upwards of 100 articles of Solid Gold &c.' A man stoops over it, using a lorgnette. Behind him and looking to the left, a lady says to her little boy "Look at the Horses Tommy." The bust of Napoleon is on the left. A Frenchman gazes at it, weeping unrestrainedly; he says: "Ah! Mon dear Empreu'r dis is de Shocking sights." In the foreground (left) a well-dressed man holds out a shirt to three women, saying, "This is one of Napoleons Shirts Ladies." Against the wall is a piece of drapery decorated with bees and with a crowned 'I'. Next it is a display of gold plate with a coffee-pot. Above are three pictures: game (dead birds), a seascape, an elephant. On the right, in an alcove, is a glass case containing a chamber-pot. On it are two busts, one of 'Homer'.
January 1816.
Hnad-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1816
- Dimensions
-
Height: 280 millimetres
-
Width: 380 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
Reid, No. 559. Cohn, No. 1959. Listed by Broadley. Reissued, 'Cruikshankiana', 1835. Reproduced, J. T. Tussaud, op. cit., p. 168.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2015 Feb-Aug, BM, Rm 90, Bonaparte and the British
- Acquisition date
- 1859
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1859,0316.111
