print;
satirical print;
frontispiece;
pamphlet
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.3573
- Description
-
Pamphlet entitled "A Collection of State Flowers" with an etched frontispiece satirising Robert Walpole's corrupt administration. On the left, a large sunflower (Walpole) on the stem of which is written "Shelter for Friends" turns towards the sun. Beyond is another large flower on the stem of which is written "Charitable Corporation Flower"; two men (directors of the Corporation) stand on its branches with their backs to the viewer shaking down the coins that form its petals; a woman, named "Mrs Brown", kneels on the ground beneath gathering up the coins, saying, "Oh! Ich de Engels Gelt beleuven". A man whose hat and wig lie on the ground, chops at the stem of the flower with an axe, saying, "Let 'em be ruin'd so we are made". Behind, a rose tree labelled, "Blown down but not forsaken", has been uprooted by a wind. In the foreground, beside the sunflower is a row of "Five Treasury Pinks[Lords]/Ready upon accasion" and with a paper labelled, "Excise"; beside them, sixteen thistles (the Scottish Representative Peers), say, "We speak for the Ready". 1734
Etching
- Production date
- 1734
- Dimensions
-
Height: 360 millimetres (image)
-
Height: 336 millimetres (pamphlet)
-
Width: 209 millimetres (image)
-
Width: 221 millimetres (pamphlet)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The corrupt Charitable Corporation for the Relief of the Industrious Poor was one of the scandals of the Walpole period. Its directors Sir Robert Sutton and Sir Archibald Grant were expelled from the House of Commons in 1732 and ordered to make restitution after Sir Thomas Robinson had petitioned the House.
The pamphlet was advertised in the Grub Street Journal, 28 February 1734, "(Price One Shilling) (With a large Frontispiece, fit to be fram'd)"
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1989/90 Dec-Feb, Bolton Museum & AG, Folly and Vice
1990 Feb-Mar, York City AG, Folly and Vice
1990 Mar-May, Exeter, Royal Albert Memorial Mus, Folly and Vice
1990 May-Jun, Birmingham Museum & AG, Folly and Vice
- Associated titles
Associated Title: A Collection of State Flowers (1734)
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.3573
