print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.12775
- Title
- Object: Broken Gingerbread-
- Description
-
A sequel to No. 10518, Gillray's 'Tiddy-Doll'. Napoleon, haggard and desperate, wearing tattered uniform without the former apron and sword, walks in profile to the left, carrying on his head a large tray. On this stand three gingerbread kings, burlesqued and mutilated, with two queens, a detached head (crowned), and (right) a pile of imperial emblems: crowns, mitre, sceptre, eagle, flag, &c. On the left a bonnet rouge hangs from a staff. In the middle stands an imperial eagle with a tricolour flag to which is tied a broom showing that the contents of the tray are for sale. Napoleon says (with grimly closed mouth): "Buy my Image! Here's my nice little Gingerbread Emperor & Kings Retail and for Exportation!" Behind him is a tumbledown thatched hovel; over an aperture where more gingerbread figures are displayed is a board: 'Tiddy-Doll Gingerbread Baker. NB Removed from Paris.' Above fly three of the (carrion) birds associated in these prints with Elba. Napoleon walks towards the sea; across the water (in France) tiny figures dance holding hands round a white flag inscribed 'Vivent les Bourbons' and topped by a fleur-de-lis. Behind them is the gable-end of a rustic inn: 'The Kings Head New Revived'. A fiddler capers on the edge of the cliff, watching Napoleon.
21 April 1814.
Hand-coloured etching.
- Production date
- 1814
- Dimensions
-
Height: 215 millimetres
-
Width: 275 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
One of many satires on Napoleon's banishment, see No. 12229, &c., and on the fall of the Bonaparte kings, the 'Corsican Kinglings' of No. 10518. The Kings must be Joseph, Louis, and Jérôme, see No. 12225, the Queens either their wives or Napoleon's sisters; they symbolize the fall of the dynasty and no precise identification is necessary. The other kings of No. 10518, those who owed their crowns to Napoleon, are absent; they are now his enemies. For the Bourbon Restoration cf. No. 12225. The French equivalent of the title is 'Fabrique de Sire [Cire]', see No. 12606. Cf. No. 12276, &c.
Reid, No. 315. Cohn, No. 960. Broadley, i. 357 f. (reproduction).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.12775