print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1859,0316.69
- Title
- Object: The Mock delivery of Joanna!!!
- Description
-
Joanna Southcott, propped on pillows, lies in a handsome bed (left); against her pillow is a bottle of 'Royal Max' [gin]. She watches a parson seated beside her (left) delightedly dandling a screaming infant. She says: "Dear Tozer write a new Bulletin for next Sundays Monitor." Tozer: "Hush my little Shiloh, he shall lay in his fine Cott, have nice beautiful presents of our dear Birmingham & other friends that he shall he shall [sic] be a King too & have all the fine things." Behind him is an infant's commode, topped by a crown. At his feet is a letter: 'To Mr Parson Tozer'. A doctor (probably Reece) stands by the bed, his hand on Joanna's left arm, he raises an admonitory finger: "Hush, hush, don't talk, have no one admitted, let Towzer answer all enquiries you know he has a face that will carry him through anything We have got the Child convey'd here very Snug no one scarcely knows (my learned Brothers excepted) & as they are as much implicated as ourselves we need not doubt their secrecey."
In the foreground and on the extreme right is an accurate representation of the cot presented to Joanna, of satin-wood ornamented with gold. The head is decorated with an irradiated crown and the word 'Shiloh' in Hebrew characters. The canopy is surmounted by a dove holding an olive-branch, and round it are the words [A] 'Free-will offering' ['by Faith to the promised Seed']. A pap-boat, coral, bottle, and spoon lie on the floor. Behind, and between cot and bed, stand five doctors in consultation. One says: "D—n her & her prophecys too I say, I've got into a pretty mess with being so officious, however I could have sworn she was with child." A colleague answers: "Ah! Brother I fear it will not do, we shall be all blown & then it will be a D—d pretty Cut for us, my wife told me not to meddle." Another pair say: "I'll scratch off Man Midwife from my Door as soon as I get home—"; "And I'll stick to that part of the practice which sends beings out of the World let who will usher them in in future."
12 December 1814.
Hand-coloured etching.
- Production date
- 1814
- Dimensions
-
Height: 248 millimetres
-
Width: 350 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
See No. 12329, &c. Bulletins on Joanna's condition during her supposed pregnancy appeared in 'The Sunday Monitor', the last being on 26 Nov., concluding: 'It is the opinion of her medical attendants, that either labour or death must take place in a few days.' Among the many presents for Shiloh were a silver cup and salver inscribed 'Hail Messiah, Prince of Salem... from a part of the believers in the divine mission of Joanna Southcott, at Birmingham'. An engraving of the cot (with a portrait of Joanna) is a frontispiece to 'An Impartial Account. . .', Leeds, 1814.
Reid, No. 398. Cohn, No. 1741.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1859
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1859,0316.69
