The British butcher, supplying John Bull with a substitute for bread / Js. Gy. desn. et fect.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
The British butcher, supplying John Bull with a substitute for bread / Js. Gy. desn. et fect.
hand colored etching
image: 38.5 x 24.4 cm; plate: 39 x 24.9 cm; sheet: 40 x 25.9 cm
Peel 2876
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Summary: 

Pitt (right), as a butcher, stands arrogantly behind his block, holding up a leg of mutton to a hungry, lean, and dismayed John Bull, who stands with bent knees (left), his right hand groping in his breeches pocket. Pitt says: "A Crown, - take it, or leave't". His cleaver lies on his blood-stained block, on the front of which are two placards side by side listing outrageous prices. Behind Pitt is the pent-house roof of the shop or stall from the front of which hang joints of meat and pieces of offal. The lower story of a house forms a background (left). John Bull wears the dress and wrinkled gaiters of a yokel.

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