- Museum number
- 1868,0808.12274
- Title
-
Object: State of the weather.
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Object: Fac simile
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Object: History of a coat. Continued from No 4. [BM Satires 15041]
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Object: Shipping news. | Voyage of a steam boat from Glasgow to Liverpool, continued from No 4 [BM Satires 15037] | Scene 5. Passing the clock. pleasant breeze
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Object: L'Anatomie vivante, or living skeleton now exhibiting in London.
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Object: Chain Pier, Newhaven.
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Object: Proclamation.
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Object: Fight between the lion & dogs at Warwick.
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Object: Burmese war boats.
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Object: Antiquities.
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Series: Vol. 1. - No. 5. Glasgow Looking Glass.
- Description
-
Caricature magazine of four folio pages, the last blank, in the form of a (fortnightly) newspaper. 6 August 1825
Lithographs as follows:
Page 1.
STATE OF THE WEATHER. (15045)
The front page is covered with small designs illustrating torrid weather and dominated by a flaming sun, enclosing a tiny figure of Apollo, blowing a fire with bellows. Above: 'All shun the raging Dogstar's sultry heat, And from the half unpeopled Town retreat'. Rays from the sun strike vertically downwards on fish swimming and holding up parasols in their mouths:
'The Sun's perpendicular haul [rays in original]. Illumines the depths of the Sea, And the Fishes beginning to sweat. Cry bless us! how hot we shall be.'
(The second couplet ('Damn it' in place of 'Bless us') was added by W. L. Mansel (see No. 11585) to the first, which he found on a friend's desk. The lines were illustrated by Du Maurier in Punch. Notes and Queries, 1940, p. 420.) This is flanked by two street scenes. [1] 'Venison ready roasted'. A customer flinches from smoking joints on a butcher's stall. [2] 'Cold Comfort N° 1'. Street urchins drink from a pump, a man from a large pitcher just filled, while a ragged woman brings a baby.
Other designs: 'Cold Comfort N°2': a woman's head emerges from a slipper-bath (like that of Marat). A placard in a gully (the bed of a stream) announces 'Good dry Pasturage to Let Apply to A. Brook': thirsty cattle and sheep rush down towards the bottom. A huge fly on the nose of a drayman: 'The Fly that sips treacle is drown'd in the sweats' [sweets, in Gay's 'Beggar's Opera']. The four horses of a mail-coach collapse from the heat. 'A Gallopping Consumption'. A dead saddle-horse lying beside a street lamp-post has been reduced to a skeleton by swarms of flies; a doctor and maidservant from an adjacent house gaze in astonishment. 'Waiting for Dinner'. A fat cook, surrounded by flies, sleeps beside the joint on the spit, which has caught fire. 'Ditto. Ditto' A man, with unbuttoned waistcoat, wig on the floor, sits at table, angrily tugging a bell-pull. 'A night at Gourock'. A fat couple in bed, tortured by heat and insects. A fat pedestrian, beset with flies, mops his head beside a milestone, X Miles to Glasgow, on which he has flung his coat: 'these times make people thin, their very flesh | Weary of solid firmness melts itself'.
Page 2.
FAC SIMILE
Undescribed by George (BM Satires). Continues: 'of order from Lord Rollo to the magistrates of Glasgow to attend the Pretender's standard'; the letter signed 'RCW'.
HISTORY OF A COAT. Continued from N° 4 [15041] (15046)
See No. 15041. [9] 'Old Closh'. The valet hands the coat to a Jew wearing three hats and dilapidated unmatched boots. [10] 'Monmouth Street'. A shopman adjusts the (renovated) coat on a would-be dandy. [11] 'Visit to my Aunt's Husband'. The purchaser, wearing a long cape, hands the garment to a pawnbroker. [12] 'Auction Unredeemed Pledges'. The auctioneer in his rostrum with raised hammer points down at the coat which his man holds up to a group of bidders. [14] 'A peg lower'. Still fashionable in shape, the coat is worn by one of two porters carrying boxes on a stretcher. [15] 'Lower Still, to be continued'. Much tattered, it is worn by a street-scavenger.
15047 SHIPPING NEWS. | Voyage of a Steam Boat from Glasgow to Liverpool, Continued from N° 4 [No. 15037] | Scene 5. Passing the Cloch. pleasant breeze (15047)
The after-deck of a paddle-steamer, a man at the wheel. Passengers lean over the side to vomit. A man loses his hat. Behind is a lighthouse. See No. 15051.
L'ANATOMIE VIVANTE, OR LIVING SKELETON NOW EXHIBITING IN LONDON. (15048)
The skeleton, seated, is displayed by the French showman to a fat John Bull and a countrywoman. Below: '28 years of age. 5 feet 6 inches high, native of Champagne, France'. See No. 14882, &c.
CHAIN PIER, NEWHAVEN. (15049)
A packet, with smoking funnel, lies at the end of the (Edinburgh) pier, from which passengers descend by a gangway; people on the pier lose their hats. Below: 'Rather windy, or so'.
PROCLAMATION. (15050)
A dog rushes from a room, barking 'Bow wow wow', as do a cat and articles of furniture which rise into the air. A man on hands and knees bites a chair. Below: 'In consequence of the above Melancholy case of Hydrophobia the inhabitants are' [sic]. Cf. No. 15360.
Page 3. (All undescribed be George (BM Satires).)
FIGHT BETWEEN THE LION & DOGS AT WARWICK.
Spectators watching a lion baited by dogs in a cage.
BURMESE WAR BOATS.
Two canoes.
ANTIQUITIES.
'Representation of the Scottish Arms, cut in oak... Holyrood Chapel...'
Also a man wearing glasses, appearing from behind a large scroll headed 'To correspondents.', perhaps William Heath (see BM Satires 15301).
- Production date
- 1825
- Dimensions
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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 'State of the weather' (15045):
The summer was exceptionally hot and dry. Two horses in a mail-coach from Scarborough died from the heat, and several horses 'died from exhaustion in the streets of the metropolis'. Ann. Reg. Chron. (19 July). Cf. No. 15001.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.12274
