Sparring : dedicated to the fancy / I.R. Criukshank, fecit.

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Robert Cruikshank
1789-1856
Sparring : dedicated to the fancy / I.R. Criukshank, fecit.
London : Pubd by Sidebotham, Feby 1817
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.482
Provenance: 
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Summary: 

Print shows a scene at a sparring club, or perhaps at Jackson's Rooms in Bond Street. Two boxers fight in shirts and breeches, surrounded by spectators. The slighter man is giving his burly opponent a blow on the nose from which blood spurts. One or two of the onlookers are fashionably dressed, notably a Jewish man wearing Hessian boots. Like other spectators he has a long pipe; most smoke and drink, and are rough-looking fellows. In the foreground (left) sits a man with a bull-dog, in ragged clothes of fashionable cut; a bunch of hooks for picking locks hangs from his pocket. On the right stands a black pugilist holding boxing-gloves; a book, 'Boxiana', is at his feet. Over the fireplace hang a row of full length portraits, including one of John Jackson copied from Marshall's portrait. It is flanked (left) by portraits of the boxers 'Moline[ux]' and 'Belcher' [Tom or James] and (right) by 'Crib' and 'Dutch Sam' [Elias], all stripped and in sparring attitudes. On the extreme left is a print of fighting cocks titled 'Game Chickens'.

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