- Museum number
- 1868,0808.12270
- Title
-
Object: Series of occasional essays. No. 1 on taste.
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Object: Shipping news. | Embarkation.| Scene. 1st. | Voyage of a steam boat from Glasgow to Liverpool. | to be continued.
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Object: Domestic intelligence.
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Object: Extracts from the Mobiade | An epic poem, in three books. Written at Edinburgh 18**.
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Object: Politics. | Present state of Europe.
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Object: Police intelligence.
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Object: The devils in the police office. Free press 18th. June.
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Object: Fashionable promenade. | Royal Botanic Garden.
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Object: Advertisements.
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Series: Vol. 1. - No. 2. Glasgow Looking Glass.
- Description
-
Caricature magazine of four folio pages, the last blank (in later numbers covered with lithographed or letterpress text), in the form of a (fortnightly) newspaper. 25 June 1825
Lithographs as follows:
Page 1.
SERIES OF OCCASIONAL ESSAYS. N° 1 ON TASTE. (15024)
Four sets of figures illustrating contrasts: [1] A gormandizing glutton carves
a bird, watched by a bloated dog. A tipsy man staggers along, holding a pipe
and spilling the contents of his tankard. A ragged emaciated miser sits on a
padlocked chest holding a candle in a saveall (cf. No. 14362).
[2] A connoisseur inspects the posterior of a mutilated female statue. An
amateur coachman holds the reins of a four-in-hand. Aman stands in the water
fishing, in driving rain.
[3] An old maid nurses a lap-dog, surrounded by cockatoo, monkey holding
up a cat by the tail, and two other dogs. An elegant young mother with two
children, and a handsome young husband leaning over her chair.
[4] A street fountain, water gushing from the mouths of two absurd lions on
their hind-legs. A pretty bare-legged girl holds a bucket to spouting water.
See No. 15031.
SHIPPING NEWS. | Embarkation. | Scene Ist Voyage of a Steam Boat from Glasgow to Liverpool. | to be continued. (15025)
Harbour scene. Passengers rush frantically towards the small steamer lying at the quay: a cart upsets, a man falls. A second boat steams from the harbour. See No. 15032.
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. (15026)
Scene Ist. Glasgow 28th May 1823. Household goods from a house which is To Let are piled in an open cart in the pouring rain ; two figures sit among the furniture. The street is filled with other removals, all carried on in wild confusion. Cf. Rowlandson's Quarter Day, No. 12399.
Scene 2nd. Home, sweet Home. A bare dilapidated room into which household goods have been dumped. By the light of a candle in a bottle a virago berates her husband while children fight.
Page 2.
EXTRACTS FROM THE MOBIADE An Epic Poem, in three Books. Written at Edinburgh 18** (15027)
Riot in a street of small houses. Women, especially fishwives, and men attack windows and a shop-front with stones, a dead cat, &c. Heading to mock-heroic verses on a riot against dearth and the absence of holiday fare at Christmas and the New Year. Tail-piece: three men register astonished alarm at a large sack inscribed Cannon Mills. See Nos. 15034, 15039.
POLITICS. | PRESENT STATE OF EUROPE. (14783)
In the centre a rocky mound rising from the sea is inscribed 'Greece'; on this a Greek patriot, holding up a cross, throttles a Turk. At the base of the rock (r.) tiny Greek vessels have defeated a huge Turkish man-of-war, which is on fire. Behind (r.) is another rock inscribed 'Turkey', covered with domed buildings which are falling in ruins, smitten by lightning. The largest figure is that of Alexander, seated on a drum in the foreground (1.) on land inscribed 'Russia'; he holds out towards Greece an open rat-trap, 'For Greece', smiling over his r. shoulder. In the distance three mounds recede in perspective (1.), representing 'England', 'France', and 'Holland'. On the first George IV sits in an arm-chair; on the second the Archbishop of Rheims crowns Charles X (see No. 14782). A fat Hollander stands smoking his pipe on the third. The Devil flies off with a bag inscribed Spain. Behind the cross of Greece a sun irradiates the design, the rays striking heavy clouds over Turkey.
POLICE INTELLIGENCE. (15028)
A hand emerges from cloud holding a pair of scales. On one, high in the air, sits a man in a cocked hat, surrounded by a swarm of others who cling to it, trying to pull it down; many fall to the ground. They are defeated by a solitary man (Mr. Hardie) who stands in the other scale which rests on the ground. A satire which contributed 'not a little' to arrest the force of the 'pitiless muck' running against Mr. James Hardie of Lancefield, the last Master of Police in Glasgow, his successors being Superintendents (now Chief Constables). J. Strang, Glasgow and its Clubs, 1857, p. 339. See No. 15042.
THE DEVILS IN THE POLICE OFFICE. Free Press 18th June (15029)
Police magistrates sit facing a group of ragamuffins, some with horns and blackened faces.
Page 3.
FASHIONABLE PROMENADE. | ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN
Undescribed by George (BM Satires). Various visitors inspecting plants, including 'the splendid Cactus Speciossimus, which has been in flower for some time past, [and] has given increased interest to the Houses'; the greenhouses visible in the background.
ADVERTISEMENTS (15030)
Two of seven little scenes, as No. 15023: [1] Public Library | 75 Hutcheson Street [signed] W H. A griffin stands behind a counter, holding book and eyeglass, addressing two fashionably dressed women. An amused officer sits in a chair reading a paper. A porter brings in a packing-case of Books from Paris. Other cases are inscribed Berlin, S' Petersburg, Books from London, Books from Dublin. On a second counter are Books at half Price. (The shop of R. Griffin where the 'Looking Glass' was on sale.)
4] Exhibition | Buchanan Street. A crowd enters a Rotunda placarded Grand Panorama of Waterloo. A soldier in Highland uniform addresses a ragged Scot, pointing to the door; the latter gropes in his pockets. (The panorama is probably by Heath who went to Glasgow to paint panoramas, and who had designed many large plates of Waterloo.)
- Production date
- 1825
- Dimensions
-
Height: 404 millimetres (approx. page size)
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Width: 277 millimetres (approx. page size)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
Notes to 'Politics. | Present state of Europe.' (14783)
Contemporary optimism is illustrated. Granville to Henry Wellesley, 11 June 1825 : 'If the Greeks have been as successful in repelling the Turkish and Egyptian invasion of the Morea as the newspapers represent, they will not be satisfied with anything short of . . . independence.' Diary and Corr. of Lord Cowley, 1930, i. 137. But, apart from a few sporadic Greek successes with fire-ships, and the (temporary) resistance of Missolonghi, the Turks, with the help of Mahomet Ali, were overwhelming the Greeks. The intentions of Alexander were suspect in England, and his armed intervention on behalf of Greece was feared, cf. No. 14123.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.12270
