print; satirical print

Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.

Object Type: print; satirical print
Museum number: 1868,0808.6928
Title: Object: The Union club.
Description: An imitation but not a copy of BMSat 9699. The table runs straight across the design. Fox on the extreme right sleeps on two chairs, signs of debauch beside him. Next him sits Bedford, smoking, and puffing smoke at Fox. Opposite him is the chair of state, with empty bottles stacked on the deeply cushioned seat. The back is more elaborately decorated: three hands join in union and are enclosed in a circle formed of a snake, emblem of Eternity; the back of the chair and the two pillars of the canopy are garlanded with thistles, roses, and shamrock, thistles predominating. The apex of the chairback is a cap of Liberty with two crossed fasces, with axes; on the cap hangs the plumed hat of the Prince. He is represented only (if at all) by legs seenB on the ground below Fox's chairs. In the narrow space on the right of the throne are Sheridan, glass in one hand, pipe in the other, Lansdowne, smoking, with Parr standing behind, holding up his tankard, his left hand, holding a pipe, resting on Lansdowne's shoulder. In the centre foreground stands Norfolk, very dishevelled, leaning tipsily against a chair, holding out a glass which Moira, standing erect, tries unsuccessfully to fill. Queensberry lies on the ground between them, holding up a glass, and spilling the contents of a bottle. On the table, behind Queensberry, sits Derby. On the extreme left Skeffington and Mathew dance together like Bacchantes, with tipsy grace. On the farther side of the table (left to right) sits Clermont, holding out a glass to Derby; Cholmondeley and Erskine embrace each other; Tierney squeezes a lemon into a glass, perhaps indicating his parsimony, see BMSat 9045. In the background the fighting is even wilder than in BMSat 9699. Sturt, on the extreme left, and Hanger face each other with raised shillelaghs; both wear shirts or surplices over their coats. Between them appears the frightened face of Tyrwhitt Jones. One man fights with poker and tongs, two brandish chairs to smite each other; one is General Davies. A hand holding up a constable's staff rises above the fray. The air is filled with missiles. Mathew, Clermont, Hanger, Moira, and Davies wear shamrock in their hats. Below the design: 'Thus w'ell Join Heads and Hands all discord shall cease, And with Bottles & Glasses the Union increase. And Pat-riots of England w'ell drink down the Sun, And to dear Friends in Ireland w'ell drink down the Moon.' See BMSat 9698, &c. 8 February 1801 Etching
Producer name
School/style
Production date: 1801
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 296 millimetres; Width: 398 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Bibliographic references
Location: Not on display
Subjects
Associated names: Associated with: Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford; Associated with: George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley; Associated with: William Henry Fortescue, Earl of Clermont; Associated with: Thomas Davies; Associated with: Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby; Associated with: Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine; Associated with: Charles James Fox; Associated with: George VI, King of the United Kingdom; Associated with: George Hanger, 4th Baron Coleraine; Associated with: Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt Jones; Associated with: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Lansdowne; Associated with: Hon Montague Mathew; Associated with: Francis Rawdon Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings and 2nd Earl of Moira; Associated with: Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk; Associated with: Rev Samuel Parr; Associated with: William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry; Associated with: Richard Brinsley Sheridan; Associated with: Hon Lumley St George Skeffington; Associated with: Charles Sturt of Crichel; Associated with: George Tierney
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1868
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1868,0808.6928

Free entry

Opening hours