print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 2006,U.588
- Title
- Object: Frontispiece to the trial of John Bull!!
- Description
-
Perhaps from a book. Napoleon (left) and John Bull face each other across a narrow piece of water, each standing on a small promontory. John, a stout, well-dressed citizen, with a cane, holds out a paper: 'Honor Justice Necessity'; he says: "Contriband of war within the Grasp of an Enemy is a Lawful Prize." At his feet are cannon and cannon-balls, with the menacing head of his bull-dog on the extreme right Napoleon stands on a tattered paper: 'Rights of Nations', on which rests the point of the huge sabre held in his gauntleted right hand. His left fist is clenched. He says: "For once I am too late D------n all England & the King of the Seas." A scroll suspended from the upper margin between the antagonists is inscribed: 'There's something rotten in the state of Denmark!!' The sea forms a background, with a fleet sailing from the horizon towards England. c. May-June 1803
Etching
- Production date
- 1803 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 206 millimetres
-
Width: 255 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
On the outbreak of war, see BMSat 9996, French commercial shipping was swept from the sea. An order for letters of marque and reprisal, dated 16 May, was published in the 'Gazette' of 17 May. In retaliation Bonaparte detained all Englishmen in France between the ages of eighteen and sixty; two reasons were given, first, all Englishmen of those ages were liable to service in the militia, and (later) that England had imprisoned Frenchmen taken at sea (i.e. sailors). See O. Browning, 'England and Napoleon in 1803', 1887, pp. 273 ff.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1891
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2006,U.588
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: 1891,1116.179