- Museum number
- 1868,0808.12616
- Title
- Object: State miners.
- Description
-
The interior of the 'Treasury' (the name over an iron-studded door) with heaps of coin on the floor; many persons greedily help themselves or walk off with plunder. In the foreground (right) are housebreaking tools: keys and picklocks, a dark lantern and masks, with shovels. Two men ply shovels: one is Lord Eldon (left), saying, "I never care how the world wags for I've always 4,000 per Anm Secure in my Bags" [he refers to a Chancellor's pension, cf. No. 10714]. The other is Perceval, [identified by Reid as Vansittart, Secretary to the Treasury 1801-4 and 1806-7 but not resembling him] who cheerfully shovels coin into a pair of breeches held out by a man whose hair stands on end, and says: "Come along Leatherbreech's! what the devil makes your hair stand on end always?" He addresses Lethbridge who came into prominence over the arrest of Burdett, see No. 11538. Alderman Curtis, wearing sailor's trousers (see No. 11353, &c.), stands in front of a basket overflowing with coin inscribed 'Billys Biscuit Basket'; beside it is a paper 'Biscuit Contract' [see No. 11354]. He says: "I filld my Basket Speedy & Soon" [see No. 11306]. Behind him two grotesque Scots exult together; one says: "The de'el tak me but I've taken care o mysel"; the other: "you are right Mr McScroyle I have feathered my own nest well". Two men behind are Castlereagh and Canning, glaring angrily at each other; the latter says: "get out of the way pat you have no more business here then I have" [see No. 11370, &c.]. On the right is a 'Secret Door' over which hang the tattered fragments of a 'Map of the United Kingdoms of . . .' Towards this are walking (among others) a fat drink-blotched parson carrying a tub on his head inscribed 'Cambridge Butter Tub' [cf. No. 13105], and Liverpool wearing a star. A man whose head only is visible says: "I have croaked for something", showing he is Croker, Secretary to the Admiralty. On the extreme left Wellesley, an Oriental wearing a jewelled turban, walks off with a sack, saying, "Take Care of Number One". Two grotesque busts, heavily shaded, emerge from the heaps of coin; they dimly suggest grotesque renderings of Queen Charlotte (clutching a money-bag) and George III. Behind the former is the back of a top-hatted head suggesting the Prince.
Pictures cover the greater part of the wall. On the extreme left is (1) a bust portrait of the Prince of Wales in back view. Next (2) a flying demon leads burglars towards a hoard inscribed 'Secret Million' and 'Public, 100000000'. The foremost, who is masked and has a key and dark lantern, is probably Perceval; he is followed by Eldon and other tiny figures. The centre picture (3) is inscribed 'What I wod, have if I could': Perceval holds in leading-strings an infant wearing the Prince's feathers in his cap and holding up a coral and bells inscribed 'R-G-Y'; he drives the child towards an infant's commode-chair inscribed 'Regency', saying, "thats my Pitty Pincy". His coat-tails are held by the Queen whose head is obscured by a pillar (showing she replaces the King, cf. No. 10709). Behind him is a barber's block representing the King's head. On the right is (4) 'King Lear & his Daughter'; the King is grotesque and unrecognizable, identified by his words, "what what"; he holds up both arms at the sight of a woman lying prostrate (a heartless representation of the death of Princess Amelia (2 Nov. 1810), believed to have been the final cause of his insanity). Below this is (5) a picture inscribed 'Devil among the Lawyers'; the Devil frightening a group of lawyers (cf. No. 8394, &c.).
January 1811.
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1811
- Dimensions
-
Height: 259 millimetres
-
Width: 359 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
Perhaps the first elaborate political design by G. Cruikshank without his father's help. A schoolboy conception, partly hackneyed generalities on placemen, &c., but with some point in its allusions to the Regency, see No. 11705, &c. The Prince in leading-strings derives from No. 7497 (1789), 'Suitable Restrictions' by Rowlandson, like this print a satire on the Regency restrictions. For the supposed miserliness of the King and Queen see No. 7836, &c. The first allusion to Eldon as 'Bags' (called 'Old Bags' by the Prince). A reversion to the ridicule of the King which had disappeared from political caricatures. No. 6280 (1783) has the same title.
Reid, No. 120. Cohn, No. 2004.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.12616
