print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.6222
- Title
- Object: The Unitarian arms
- Description
-
Design in an oval. A burlesque coat of arms symbolizing the supposed character of the Unitarians represented by Priestley. After the title is engraved: 'Address'd to those Peaceable Subjects of this Kingdom who prefer the Present happy Constitution to that Anarchy & Bloodshed so Zealously sought for by these restless advocates for Priestly & Paine's Sophistical Tenets.' A printed explanation is attached to the print. The shield rests on a vulture which grasps in its beak and claws the motto: 'Under these Garbs do we act.' On a shaded (sable) ground a harpy suckles young harpies and holds up the cap of Liberty with a pendent banner on which is a crown surrounded by drops of blood. On a border round the shield are ten groups of ten intertwined serpents. The crest is the Devil and a number of fiends attacking a glory of rays surrounding a triangle, symbolizing the Trinity. The supporters are (dexter) Religion, a veiled woman holding a book and cross, her foot on a skull, and (sinister) Hypocrisy, a woman with the feet of a bird of prey, reading a book, and holding (concealed) a dagger with a notched blade; a trumpet is slung to her waist; a small wallet containing 'a bandelure' (see BMSat 7829) hangs from her neck in place of a cross. She tramples on a crown. She wears a ragged drapery, intended to suggest humility, over a rich garment. 14 July 1792
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1792
- Dimensions
-
Height: 247 millimetres
-
Width: 206 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)
The 'nests' of serpents allude to 'a late Regulation of the dissenters, under the Direction of Thomas Paine, appointing equal and regular Meetings of ten each. . . . N.B. At present 3,000 have entered into this Confederacy'. Religion is represented because 'It is under the Cloak of Religion the greatest Enormities are committed'. The print illustrates the prejudice against the dissenters, cf. BMSat 7628, &c, and the alarm caused by the writings of Paine and the correspondence of the Reform Societies with France. See BMSat 7867, &c. and 'Ann. Reg.', 1792, ii. 128. ff.
(Supplementary information)
A printed explanation is attached to the sheet.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.6222