print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1948,0214.884
- Title
- Object: A taylor's board!!!
- Description
-
A board meeting, with (?) Sidebotham at the head of the table (left) facing a Scot in Highland dress, seated on a cask of 'Sulpher Bri'. Two tailors stand at the nearer side of the table in angry controversy, one in patched, the other in tattered dress. The latter says: "You have made a pretty botch of this Business. How do you like the measures I have taken Mr Tailor." Beside him are a 'Sleeve Board' and (tape) 'Measures'. The other, who is uncouth, with a 'Pattern Book' hanging from his pocket, answers: "I care not for the Measures, it is for the Goose & Board that Plague me most!! and one Taylor should not be too hard upon another!" On the table a pair of shears lies on a paper: 'Paving Act Sec 37—Inhabitants to Sweep Scrape & Wash the Gutters every day or pay 2/6 to be levied by Sale of Goods or 3 Months Imprisonment!!' Three men sit on the farther side of the table; one points behind him at the inscription 'a Goose', beside the tailor's goose which the Scot holds. The latter (? J. Ross, see below) says: "What signifies your swearing that you regularly Sweep your Door if ye dinna Scrape & Wash it also? The filthy Loons o this Town should go to my Country to learn Cleanliness. No excuse for dirty streets there!!! Thanks to the Bra' Scotts wi their long Cloaks & Buckets!!! As your Sleeve-Board, Shears, & Goose, are not likely to sell for as much as the Fines amount to you must be content to thread your Needles in the County Goal for 3 Months, according to our Act Sect 124 Where you will have opportunity enough to moralize on the effects of a Filthy Foot-Path & Gutter you dirty Dog!!!!!!!" Under his arm is a chanter: 'A substitute for a Scotch Bag-pipe, taken from a South Briton by a North-Briton for refusing to be his own Scavenger!!!'
Sidebotham, a good-looking man in top-boots with a handsome bunch of seals, writes in a ledger: 'J Sidebotham Dr to S Brigley To print 1000 first [cari]catures of the Board.' Beside him (left) are a wheelbarrow and shovels. Above his head: 'Premium for Dust Carts!! Whereas the Commissioners being required by the Act (Sect. 100) to send Dust Carts with a Bell to each Daily through the Streets to take away the Ashes & filth from the Inhabitants houses and the Commissrs not being able to do so for a period of Seven years past, owing to an unaccountable Scarsity of Carts, Horses & Labourers, Do hereby Give public Notice that in future they will sit every day for Half an hour in Dawson St in order to receive proposals & to give a premium to such persons as are willing to Contract &c.' On the floor at the feet of the tailors is a paper: 'Daily Report of Houses not having their Doorways Scraped and Wash'd in the Dog days— Prick Rivet, Taylor / Billy McCleary Nassau St / J Sidebotham D° / Board House N° 1 / Dawson St!! / Rd Ogle Leinster St / J Peters Kildare St / J Malone Grafton St / J Cooke Dame St / Fletcher & Sharrat Abbey St / J McCleery Longford St / Signed & Sworn to by J Ross / Inspector of / all the Gutters!!' On the left, by the Scot, is a huge sack of 'Potatoes and other Articles Distrained & to be Sold for Fines incurred in not having Footways Scrap'd instead of Washing & by others who have Swept but neglected to Scrape—Enforced by the Commissioners who Levy enormous Rates & Taxes for Cleansing the Streets of Dublin!!' Beside this are two geese, a pig and bagpipes, jack-boots, and a bag of 'Oatmeal'.
c.1820
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1820
- Dimensions
-
Height: 236 millimetres
-
Width: 332 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
A satire on street-cleaning in Dublin with many personal allusions, notably to the rival printsellers, Sidebotham and McCleary, cf. Nos. 11412, 12054, &c. The Scot alludes to the primitive arrangements for sanitation in Edinburgh, cf. No. 8103, &c., while 'sulphur' is a cure for the itch or 'Scotch Fiddle', see No. 14396. One of the unswept frontages is that of the Board.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1948
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1948,0214.884