print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.8478
- Title
- Object: A candidate and his supporters
- Description
-
The candidate stands on a flimsy board resting on the shoulders of his two supporters who are seated on a padlocked 'Medicine Chest'. He is stout, with a parrot-like nose; he holds against his shoulder a wand, surmounted not by a cap of Liberty but by an extinguisher, with a streamer attached to it, inscribed 'Liberty'. At his feet is an apothecary's pestle and mortar, within which stands a foaming tankard. He wears a top-hat, and round his neck is a ribbon inscribed 'Vanity Impudence'; from this hangs a medal with an ass's head on it. One supporter (left) is saturnine, with a belt inscribed 'Envy'; he wears a top-hat with a plumed cockade. At his feet are foxgloves (denoting poison) and toadstools. The other is jovial, representing 'Folly'; he wears a cap and bells and holds up a fool's bauble. At his feet are two papers inscribed respectively 'Wooler' and 'Cobbett'.
c. March 1820
Etching
- Production date
- 1820
- Dimensions
-
Height: 245 millimetres
-
Width: 205 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
The identifications are doubtful: the paper is watermarked 1818. The candidate's nose excepted, he is not unlike Cobbett, who was contesting Coventry, see No. 13642. The left supporter may be Hunt; for the poisonous plants cf. No. 13631.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.8478
