print;
satirical print;
book-illustration
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.9997
- Title
- Object: Quidnunc, or the upholsterer shaving
- Description
-
The interior of a barber's shop. A barber holds the head of a seated man wrapped in a sheet, but negligently allows the bowl of shaving water he holds in his left hand to pour over his customer. By the customer's side is a dog with a collar engraved "King". A barber's assistant, raggedly dressed, is combing a wig on a block supported on a tall stand. Another holds up a looking-glass to a customer who is arranging his cravat. Another man brushes a hat. In the background a spectacled man wearing a hat reads 'The London Evening Post', on which is inscribed
"Wilkes 2315
Bull 2194
Kirkmn 1949
Plumb 1875
Oliver 119."
On a shelf are wigs of different kinds on barber's blocks on which faces are represented which are perhaps caricatures. Among them are two ladies' wigs, and a judge's wig. Two other wigs hang from the wall, and in the foreground two cats are playing with a wig which they have pulled out of a box.
The figures are those of the votes recorded at the election for sheriffs at midsummer 1771, see BMSat 4874. 1 January 1772
Etching
- Production date
- 1772
- Dimensions
-
Height: 178 millimetres
-
Width: 111 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935)
From 'Every Man's Magazine', l. 263.
The subject of the satire is from Murphy's popular farce (first played, 1757), 'The Upholsterer or What News?', in which meddling tradesmen neglect their business to discuss politics, one being 'Quidnunc', an upholsterer, another 'Razor', a barber. Cf. BMSat 5074, &c.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.9997