print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.3769
- Title
- Object: The Queen of Hungary's Whetstone
- Description
-
Satire on the progress of the War of Austrian Succession at a point when Maria Theresa and her allies had regained Bohemia from Prussia and France. The queen squats on a wall urinating on a grindstone turned by George II with the sum of £500,000 lettered on the handle while a Dutchman sharpens his sword. A label beside her reads, "Down on her Foes the Floud in vengeance flies,/But all her Friends, Confederates & Allies,/Bless the kind Shower which maks their Courage rise.".The swords of the queen's allies, already sharpened, lie on the ground with labels identifying them as Cologne, Trier, Poland, Mainz, Bohemia and Sardinia. To the right, two French soldiers call for recruits, each has a wooden leg and holds a blank sheet of paper ("carte blanche"): the drummer wearing a tall cap with a fleur-de-lis and a French cock says "Our Army's ruin'd & Silessia lost" while the skin of his drum is lettered, "Deserters come, Or I'm undone"; the trumpeter wearing a cloak decorated with fleur-de-lis says "Yon rapid stream has All our Projects cross'd". A dog barks beside the two men and beyond a battle rages across a river.
Etching
- Production date
- 1744 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 176 millimetres (image)
-
Height: 196 millimetres (trimmed?)
-
Width: 305 millimetres (image)
-
Width: 312 millimetres (trimmed?)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The queen's pose recalls that of Madame de Maintenon in BM Satires 1340. The right-hand part of the scene with the trumpeter, drummer and dog and harbour beyond is adapted from another print related to the War of Spanish Succession, BM Satire 1451.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: War of Austrian Succession 1740-1748
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.3769
