print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.7795
- Title
- Object: The old auctioneer and his clark, or a new way to pay old debts.
- Description
-
The Duke of York, in civilian dress, stands in an auctioneer's rostrum (left), with raised hammer; Mrs. Clarke, as his clerk, sits below, pen in hand, with a placard Pay Here on her desk. He addresses a group of officers, parsons, &c., saying, Going! Gentlemen, Going—cannot dwell—Captains Commission for 7oo Guineas, and a Bishoprick for a 1000, is there a higher bidder—Going! In his pocket is a letter: To G. Farquhar [see No. 11228] My dear sugary Sweet Darling. An officer wearing a gorget inspects Mrs. Clarke through an eye-glass with a fatuous smile. An obese old parson (O'Meara) looks up at the Duke, saying, Twenty years have I been waiting for a vacant Bishoprick and now is my time or never. A black servant in livery says to the Duke: Tank you Massa—and Tank you Massa's Clark that mak'ee me Captain. A little boy looks up at his father (right), an officer in cocked hat and gorget, to say: Papa buy me a commission I should like soldiering. There is a second parson, probably Dr. Glasse, and two civilians, both intent on Mrs. Clarke. On the rostrum is a List of Debts, with eleven items, the first two: plate 1000, draper 9919, the last, Dog's meat 50.
March 1809
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1809
- Dimensions
-
Height: 246 millimetres
-
Width: 352 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
See No. 11216, &c; for O'Meara, No. 11258; the duke's negro servant, who appears in several prints, asks for a commission in allusion to Sam Carter, see No. 11223. The granting of commissions to boys, an ancient abuse, was not an issue of the inquiry, but was raised by Cobbett in order to discredit Adam (see No. 11283): he said that Adam's son was an ensign before he went to school, and a lieutenant-colonel at the age of twenty-one. Pol. Reg. xv. 226-8. See also Nos. 11322, 11581.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.7795