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Object Type
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
Producer name: Print made by: Samuel Okey; After: John Collet
School/style
Production date: 1771
Materials
Technique
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.
Bibliographic references: BM Satires / Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (4433); Chaloner Smith 1883 / British Mezzotinto portraits from the introduction of the art to the early part of the present century (undescribed)
Location: Not on display
Subjects: street-trader; child; toy
Associated names: Associated with: John Wilkes; Associated with: Frederick Bull; Associated with: John Horne Tooke
Associated places: Topographic representation of: London (Fleet Prison)
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1872
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1872,1012.4775

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