print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.9459
- Title
- Object: Jack Ketch executing sentence on a culprit.
- Description
-
Scene in the Council Chamber, Guildhall. The hangman stands before the table dragging at a rope round the neck of a bust of Wellington (left) which he is about to pull from its pedestal. A scourge projects from his coat-pocket, and he says: 'This is a better job than a hanging match—double fees for this, I shall have the head dissected'. Just behind him (right) stands the Mayor Key, flanked by Aldermen Wood and Waithman, both holding up their hats! The Mayor, with a sly complacent smile, looks down, saying, 'He has forfeited all claims to honor and consistency, and shall no longer disgrace this place'. Wood:' Down with him; off with him'. Waithman: 'Hangman do your duty, as I hope every Englishman will'. Behind these three is a dense crowd of cheering citizens, probably the Livery, the most democratic body of the Corporation. Behind the semicircular railing which encloses the table is the end wall of the Chamber, with a statue of William IV in a high alcove. Small pictures on the wall are covered with curtains, with one exception, a T.Q.L. portrait of Queen Caroline. June 1832?
Lithograph
- Production date
- 1832
- Dimensions
-
Height: 276 millimetres
-
Width: 375 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', XI, 1954)
The precise application of this satire on the attitude of the City Radicals to Wellington is obscure. Key's expression suggests triumph at the success of a manoeuvre against the Duke which began in 1830, see No. 16303, &c. The date is probably after the "Days of May", see No. 17032, &c., and is before the end of Key's Mayoralty on 9 Nov. The bust of Wellington is also depicted in No. 12552 (1815). It is a replica (exhibited Guelph Exhibition, 1891) of that by Turnerelli. Wellesley and Steegmann, 'Iconography of the First Duke of Wellington', p. 48.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.9459
