print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.6332
- Title
- Object: An Impi ous attack on the back settlements or oriental diversions for Rajahs.
- Description
-
Sir Elijah Impey, wearing a judge's wig, birches a young woman whom a boy holds on his back, grasping her wrists. The boy looks round with a grin, saying, "Tickle her well Dad its my turn next." Impey, raising his birch ferociously, answers, "aye aye I'll lay it into her." The girl says "Oh the Young Imp, I'll bring you both to Justice." On a table (left) are books: 'A Treatise on the Birch Discipline' and 'Female Flagellants'. Beneath are chamber-pots containing birch-rods, inscribed '[ra]jah Senr' and '[ra]jah jun.' On the floor (right) are two books: 'Potent Reasons why Judges should avenge themselves' and 'How to Keep Maids under'. On the wall which forms a background is a statue of Justice in a niche (the head cut off by the upper margin), one scale inscribed 'Suprem Power' much outweighing the other. On each side of it is a large picture: (left) 'Excessive Pride'. Impey, seated on a throne, receives homage from prostrate orientals. A young woman fans him and shades him with an umbrella. Murderous-looking ruffians with pikes, &c, and a banner with a skull and cross-bones, stand beside him and on the right is an executioner carrying a noose and axe (an allusion to Nandakumar, see BMSat 7265). 'Degrading Humility' (right) shows the interior of the House of Commons, with Impey kneeling at the feet of the Speaker (right), the young woman points accusingly towards him; birch-rods and chamber-pots inscribed as above are on the floor. 4 January [1793] [attributed by George to ? 1791].
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1793
- Dimensions
-
Height: 252 millimetres
-
Width: 347 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)
'ELI' has been erased from the title, and 'RA' etched above it.
Probably published shortly after Impey's election to the House of Commons in 1790. On one occasion he was violently attacked by Fox and others, so irrelevantly that they were silenced by the Speaker. E. B. Impey, 'Memoirs of Sir E. Impey', 1846, pp. 354-5.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.6332
