- Museum number
- 1935,0522.11.183
- Title
- Object: The actor of all [dirty] work, or Billy on the stage again!!!
- Description
-
A design in three compartments separated by vertical lines, each containing a caricature of Curtis, with grotesque bottle-nose and vast paunch. [1] Dressed as the sailor of the Walcheren Expedition, see No. 11353, he stands in profile to the right, on a paper inscribed 'Orphans Fund'. In each hand is a big money-bag inscribed '£10 000'. He says "Orphans and full grown babies must live, I shall keep this to myself." [2] In his alderman's gown and (burlesqued) chain he stands full-face, head turned in profile to the right, supporting on his head a bulky document inscribed 'Greedy Claims of the London Clergy'. [3] As a military officer, wearing a shako and jack-boots with huge spurs, he strikes a martial attitude, drawing his sabre which is inscribed 'Manchester Steel'. He says: "Go for the High bred Hunter, tell him to come with his Charger for he is wanted also."
8 March 1820
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1820
- Dimensions
-
Height: 226 millimetres
-
Width: 338 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
An election print. Curtis, President of the Honourable Artillery Company (the City Yeomanry), who was the head of the Ministerialist Interest in the City, and had sat in six parliaments, lost his seat in 1818 to Waithman the Reformer. The contest with Waithman in 1820 was bitter and significant. Polling began on 7 Mar.; Curtis, a banker, was violently attacked as Receiver of the Orphan Fund, at a salary of £150, for having (allegedly) held a balance of £14,000 in his possession, and for having supported 'the late business of the London Clergy' (see No. 13224). On 8 Mar. a caricature, called 'The Orphan's Fund, or Sir Billy found out' was exhibited: dressed as a sailor he had a green bag suspended from one arm (cf. No. 12876), and clasped a turtle inscribed '£14.000' in the other. Here he is associated with Peterloo, see No. 13258, &c., and appeals to Sir Claudius Hunter, a Tory Lord Mayor defeated in 1812, see No. 11906. The results were Wood 5,370, Wilson 5,358, Curtis 4,908, Bridges (Mayor) 4,259, while Waithman and Thorpe, late (radical) members were beaten, with 4,119 and 3,921. This ministerial success was influenced by Cato Street (see No. 13707). Curtis ('a sort of representative of all that is pernicious in court tools and a great deal of what is disgusting') claimed to oppose assassination, sedition, and 'all the democratic faction by which those crimes had been supported'. Waithman disclaimed any connexion with Thistlewood or Hunt. 'Examiner', 1820, 12 and 19 Mar. See Nos. 13853, 14019, 14527.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1935
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1935,0522.11.183