print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1935,0522.11.147
- Title
- Object: Much wanted a Reform among females!!!
- Description
-
Four women, all eagerly amorous, look down on a densely packed crowd from a platform (right) in a rural setting. The speaker is handsome and well dressed; she leans forward with left arm raised, in her right hand is a rolled document: 'Female—Resolutions for pushing things forward'. She says: "(Dear Sisters) I feel great pleasure, in holding this thing 'um-bob in my hand, as we see our Sweethearts, and Husbands, are such fumblers at the main thing, we must of course take the thing, in our own hands,—we must not leave a stone unturn'd—we must exert every limb,—we must pursue the point as far as it will go, a REFORM is very much wanted (among us) though we should not put on Armour, or carry Guns, (it is my opinion) Though we should be start [sic] naked, we could make the whole Army Stand!—It is our duty as Wives to assist our Husbands in every Push and Turn, by that means we shall Increase, and Multiply, in our under takings.' At her right hand stands a woman who is older and stouter, and more plainly dressed, but still comely. She has a sheaf of papers inscribed 'Petition' under her right arm, and holds out a paper: 'The Whole Duty of Women'. In her left hand is a cylindrical roll like that of the first speaker, similarly inscribed. Behind them (right) stand two expectant girls, one holds on a pole a cap of 'Liberty'; a spinsterish old woman in the front row of the crowd eagerly stretches her arms towards it. The heads and shoulders of the crowd form the base of the design on the left, receding in perspective, row after row. An elderly man with a bottle-nose hits his shrewish wife in the face, saying, "Come home and get Dinner ready you Old Baggage I'll Reform you." A young man puts his hand on the bare breast of a pretty milkmaid, saying, "I feel for your Sex my Dear."
c. August 1812
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1819
- Dimensions
-
Height: 254 millimetres
-
Width: 340 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
A coarse satire on the Female Reformers who appeared at Blackburn, Manchester, and elsewhere in the summer of 1819, see No. 13257, &c.
N.B. There is a typographical error in George's catalogue; the date of the print is August 1819, not 1812.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1935
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1935,0522.11.147
