pamphlet;
print;
satirical print;
frontispiece
- Museum number
- 1875,0508.1580.+
- Description
-
Reid 4601. Pamphlet entitled, "A dictionary of slang and cant languages: ancient and modern."
With a folded, handcoloured etched illustration.
Lettered on the title-page: "A dictionary of the slang and cant languages: ancient and modern. [with an alphabetical list of users of slang and cant.] By George Andrewes, author of "The Frauds of London &c. &c." with the motto: "Get Wisdom.2 and the publisher's line at the foot of the page:
"London: Published by George Smeeton, 18 James-Street, Covent Garden. [price sixpence.]"
With a frontispiece illustration, "The Beggar's Carnival" (BM Satires No. 11475, Reid 55). Below the title: "Being an exact representation of their manner of amusing themselves; Containing the Portraits of 12 well known characters of London (Engraved from an original drawings taken on the sport on purpose of this work.). A thieves' kitchen, lit by a fire (l.) and a single candle backed by a round reflector above the fireplace. Men and women fight drink and smoke. Two ruffians in clothes of fashionable intention play cribbage; one, seated on a tub, is having his pocket picked. A man playing hand-bells, with bells attached to his cap and shoes talks to a beggar woman with a baby. A man with both legs amputated at the knee sits on one end of a long table, drinking and shouting. Facing him stands a knock-kneed dustman. A man and a girl dance beside a fiddler. On the dipapidated walls are prints: Last D..ing Speech, illustrated by bodies hanging from a gibbet: the Duke of York and Mr[s] Clarke, profile heads, inscribed "My Darling Angel & I." Joe nrs Kiddie [see BM Satires No.11228 & c Cf. No.10492.]
A list of "The sixty orders of offenders on the final page." An advertisement on the back page for: "The Stranger's Guide; or, The frauds of London detected."
1809
Hand coloured engraved frontispiece to a letterpress pamphlet
- Production date
- 1809
- Dimensions
-
Height: 182 millimetres (approx. page height (pamphlet))
-
Height: 182 millimetres (approx. page height (sheet))
-
Width: 102 millimetres (approx. page width (pamphlet))
-
Width: 205 millimetres (approx. page width (sheet))
- Curator's comments
- The number stamped on the 'Dictionary' (1875, 0508, 1580*) does not match any entry in the register.
Description of frontispiece from M. Dorothy George, "Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum." Vol XVIII. 1801-1810. 1947.
According to AM Cohn (29) "The figures by I. Cruikshank and the background by G.C." See also M.Dorothy George, BM Satires 11475: "A pencil note by G.C. Father except the 3 Upper Designs [printed on the wall] by G.C. There is a similar subject, no title, signed I Cruikshank del.
For the Duke of York and Mrs Clarke see BM Satires 11228 &c, cf No.10492.
Number two of seven pamphlets acquired by the British Museum at different dates but bound together in a brown leather effect volume, lettered on the spine: "Tracts Illustrated by G. Cruikshank and others." 1805-1852. Bound together after 1875 (the date of the latest aquisition in the volume.)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1875
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1875,0508.1580.+
