print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.6978
- Title
- Object: [The Union club.]
- Description
-
No title. The Prince of Wales presides at a dinner, seated high in a chair of state or throne, behind which is an elaborate architectural panel supporting a canopy. Above and below the design:
'We'll join hand in hand all Party shall cease,
And glass after glass shall our Union increase,
In the Cause of Old England we'll drink down the Sun,
Then toast little Ireland and drink down the Moon!'
All drink the toast with acclamations, glasses raised. The Prince rests one foot on the table; on his right are Erskine and Norfolk, on his left Sheridan and Moira. Behind them other standing guests are indicated, one on the extreme right resembling Hanger. On the near side of the table Lord Derby sits between Fox (holding a pipe) and Bedford, who grasps the hand of Sheridan across the table. The table stretches across the design, the ends cut off by the margins. January 1801
Etching
- Production date
- 1801
- Dimensions
-
Height: 136 millimetres
-
Width: 95 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
The grand dinner given at the Union Club, Cumberland House, Pall Mall, on the Queen's birthday 19 Jan. ('Lond. Chron.', 20 Jan.), the first entertainment of the new club, founded in connexion with the Union (see BMSat 9365, &c), is probably represented. This commonplace print seems to be the foundation of Gillray's fantastic and well-known rendering of the same subject, and of its imitations, in all of which conviviality has been altered to drunken riot and torpor. See BMSats 9699, 9704, 9709, 9871.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.6978