print;
satirical print;
pamphlet
- Museum number
- 1935,0522.11.163.b
- Title
- Object: Frontispiece to Sultan Sham and his Seven Wives
- Description
-
George IV, dressed as a Turk, marches arrogantly past a row of ladies of his harem, holding a large goblet whose contents are spilling. He wears a jewelled turban with the high peak of a fool's cap, terminating in a bell. The end of his long furred robe is held by a thin man (left) wearing a turban decorated with antlers to indicate Lord Conyngham; the latter's arms and legs are bare, and he shambles along, carrying a decanter. The King says: "Variety is charming. Constancy is not for me, so Ladies pray take warning." The seven ladies, all fat and all in quasi-Turkish dress with turbans, watch him intently."
Etching with hand-colouring
1820
1820
- Production date
- 1820
- Dimensions
-
Height: 177 millimetres
-
Width: 225 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
-
For a version of this print with the accompanying pamphlet see 1865, 1111, 519.
-
(Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
Illustration to a verse satire on the life of George IV, in which the villain is Queen Charlotte. The design may derive from prints of the Prince and Lord Jersey in 1796, especially Gillray's 'Grand-Signior retiring' (No. 8807). In No. 8809 there is a picture of the Prince as a Turk among his harem. Among the seven here depicted, but scarcely characterized, are probably, besides Lady Conyngham and Lady Hertford, the Duchess of Richmond, and Mrs. Quentin. The print appears in No. 14030; a similar print is in No. 14049.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1935
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1935,0522.11.163.b
