John Leech
1817-1864
A dumpy leveller outwitted
1845
3 3/4 x 6 7/8 inches (94 x 175 mm)
Graphite on paper, mounted onto detached album page.
1986.583:3
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Notes
Title from published illustration caption.
Published caption reads: A dumpy leveller outwitted. Dumpy loq. "Why, if he hasn't put up a table-cloth"
Original drawing for no. III of a series of 12 illustrations entitled "Railway miseries," which appeared in "Punch's almanack for 1846," published in: Punch, vol. 10, Jan.-June, 1846.
Published caption reads: A dumpy leveller outwitted. Dumpy loq. "Why, if he hasn't put up a table-cloth"
Original drawing for no. III of a series of 12 illustrations entitled "Railway miseries," which appeared in "Punch's almanack for 1846," published in: Punch, vol. 10, Jan.-June, 1846.
Summary
Drawing shows a heavy-set railway surveyor, accompanied by his assistants, attempting to survey a field with a "dumpy level"; two men block his view with a large cloth which reads, "Don't you wish you may get it," while a third man on horseback exclaims "There my Bucks, taker and Survoy [sic] that!!".
Associated names
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.
Bibliography
The illustrator and the book in England from 1790 to 1914 / Gordon N. Ray. New York ; London : Oxford Univ. Pr., 1976, p. 85.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Catalog link
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