print
- Museum number
- 1872,1012.4775
- Title
- Object: The City Chanters
- Description
-
Satire on popular support for John Wilkes and his ally Frederick Bull at the time of the 1771 election of City of London sheriffs. Ballad sellers stand in front of the Fleet prison: in the centre, a young woman wearing a head scarf, cloak and a neckerchief held at her breast by a cockade and badge lettered, 'Squire Wilkes again and again', her left hand on hip, holds up 'An irregular Ode to Wilkes & Liberty; to the left, a woman in a straw hat presses 'Wilkes & Bull' on an unwilling Scotsman; behind the first woman, another accompanied by a man wearing a cap, sells 'Parson Horne & the Devil' to prisoners reaching out through a barred window above which is a sign reading 'Pray remember the poor confind Debtors in the Fleet Prison'; the prison doorway bears a label advertising, 'A ginteel Lodgen too Let'. In the foreground, from left to right: a boy writes 'Magna Karta'; another chalks '45' on the back of a lawyer who is buying a ballad from the woman in the centre; a small girl pins 'Wilkes & Bull' to the bodice of her doll'; a porter, who is reading the 'Wilkes, Liberty & Bull' ballad, carries on his head a turtle with a label lettered, 'For Alderman Wilkes'. 1771
Mezzotint and etching
- Production date
- 1771
- Dimensions
-
Height: 356 millimetres (trimmed)
-
Width: 249 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Wilkes and Bull were successful in the electiion.
The reference to 'Parson Horne' relates to a a split among Wilkes's supporters: John Horne [Tooke] led a group who seceded from the Bill of Rights Society in April 1771 to form the more radical Constitutional Society.
Nigel Tattersfield (email Oct 2021): The number 45 being chalked on the back of the lawyer is a reference to the famous issue of Wilkes's North Briton, 23 April 1763.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1872
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1872,1012.4775
