- Museum number
- 1935,0522.12.182
- Title
- Object: - Carrying coals to Newcastle!! -
- Description
-
A grotesque procession of brass-founders (braziers), carrying banners and emblems of brass on poles, burlesquing a Roman triumph. They march (right to left) past a sign-post pointing (left) 'To B—burgh House' and (right) 'To Turnham Green'. All wear loose jack-boots, spurred, and on each man's head is a brass utensil (or helmet), as made by the trade, and each carries a dish-cover (or shield) inscribed 'C R'. Many wear makeshift breastplates. They wear ragged breeches, some partly covered by strips of metal on the thigh, in imitation of armour. The two goose-stepping leaders blow coach-horns to which banners are attached, inscribed 'Blow Braziers Blow thy Sounding Horns'; their head-dress is a candlestick containing a tall lighted candle. They are followed by two trumpeters, with teakettles on their heads. Next comes a tall drummer, his drum inscribed 'Hum Drum', using ladles for drumsticks and with a coal-scuttle-helmet. Prominent among their trophies are pikes, to which banners are attached, each decorated by a large white favour. The first banner is inscribed 'Hail Star of Como [see No. 13857] Brass is a Joke to thee.' Beside this, supported on a pole, is a model of a man (Bergami) on a galloping horse inscribed 'Courier'. A pair of breeches hangs from a pike. Various objects are surmounted by a piece of drapery inscribed 'Presents for Carey', and by a banner inscribed 'Men of Metal'; they include a bull, a goat, a stag's head, and a model of a Turk dancing inscribed 'Dimma Dimma'. Behind these is an owl and, beside a banner inscribed 'Pam [knave of clubs] & Qu—n for ever', is a model of Bergami carrying the Queen on his back. A figure of Harlequin is inscribed 'B B' [Bartolomeo Bergami]. Drapery is inscribed 'Presents for Bat' [Bartolommeo]; beside this is a bust of Alderman Wood. 'Furniture for the Barona' is on a banner flying over a woman (three-quarter length) wearing a triple fool's cap and emerging from a stand: 'Automaton Pitch'. A figure of 'Columbine' capers awkwardly. The interstices among these objects are filled with household utensils, &c., held high, tongs, poker, shovel, &c. Below the design: '"Why look'ye Mrs Brasier!" I dont know in what quantities you sell brass "at" Como"—But when you come "from" abroad, & ask a thinking people "to believe Black is White—D . . . me but your'e a Wholesale Dealer!!!—John Bull."
16 February 1821
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1821
- Dimensions
-
Height: 251 millimetres
-
Width: 382 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
On 22 Jan. (see No. 14112) sixty-five Addresses were presented to the Queen, including that of the City of London. Spectators were drawn to the processions 'yet a very small proportion of them betrayed an interest in the Queen, as formerly, by the exhibition of laurel leaves or white favours'. 'Diary of Henry Hobhouse', 1947, p. 47. Various trades (cf. No. 14129) went to Brandenburgh House (at Hammersmith) with flags and music, among whom 'the brass-founders were conspicuously brilliant. There were a number of men in complete suits both of brass and steel armour, and a variety of splendid insignia of the trade'. 'Examiner', 28 Jan. The 'Address of the Brass Founders & Braziers', with an engraved armorial heading, is in the Print Room; the 'Order of the Procession' shows that there were many 'Knights' in complete brass armour and a variety of 'Brazen Devices'. The Address was in 'a superb Brass Case of Roman Fasces, surmounted by a Dove . . .'. The armour and devices cost £7,000, the procession £150 more, the master-manufacturers provided the materials; each journeyman paid 2s. for the procession. 'Parl. Deb.', N.S. iv. 554. Other allusions are to items in the evidence: the Barona or Villa Pergami was given by the Queen to Bergami; for the allegedly indecent dance see No. 13929; it was identified by the defence with a harmless Moorish dance called 'dema dema'. At the Villa d'Este the Princess performed as Columbine; she also appeared as the Automaton (see No. 14120). The procession appears in No. 14196. The plate is depicted in No. 14206.
De Vinck, No. 10420.
(Supplementary information)
For title, cf. Byron's epigram on the Braziers' address:
The braziers, it seems, are preparing to pass
An address, and present it themselves all in brass;—
A superfluous pageant—for by the Lord Harry!
They'll find where they're going much more than they carry.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1935
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1935,0522.12.182
