print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- J,2.2
- Title
- Object: The golden pippin
- Description
-
Head of an old woman in profile to the left, tilted upwards. She wears a cap which conceals her hair. 9 February 1783
Etching
- Production date
- 1783
- Dimensions
-
Height: 99 millimetres
-
Width: 76 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935)
'Betty' is written on the print in an old hand; [Mr Hawkins expands this into 'Mrs Humphrey's Betty', but in 1796, the date of Gillray's 'Twopenny Whist', she was a much younger woman than this Betty in 1780, to whom she bears no resemblance. A resemblance is traceable (the ravages of time allowed for) to the mezzotint of 'Betty' by J. Dixon after Falconer, 1750. Chaloner Smith, p. 213] she is evidently the Betty of the famous fruit shop in St. James's Street, the 'patriot Betty' of Mason's 'Heroic Epistle', 1773. 'Betty's' was a fashionable 'lounge' and centre of gossip, often mentioned by H. Walpole and others. She was Elizabeth Munro or Neale, 1730-97, called 'the Queen of apple-women' by the 'Gentleman's Magazine' (obituary).
A burletta, 'The Golden Pippin', was first played 1772-3. 'Genest', v. 364.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1818
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- J,2.2