Accession number
PML 145850.172
Published
[London : s.n., 1649]
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Notes
Title from item.
Engraved frontispiece from a copy of Clement Walker's Anarchia Anglicana, or, The history of Independency, the second part (London? : s.n., 1649).
Satire on Oliver Cromwell and the overthrow of Charles I.
Copy of an earlier version of this design, with the bark of the tree here rendered primarily in crosshatching and no period following the words "Inspiratio Diabolica" at lower left (see Stephens, nos. 737-739).
Inserted as item 172 into an album of collected prints, broadsides, drawings, and miscellaneous single sheet items, assembled by former owner Joseph Ames and entitled "Emblematical and satirical prints on persons and professions" (PML 145850).
Library's copy closely trimmed and slightly torn at corners with some loss to image.
Engraved frontispiece from a copy of Clement Walker's Anarchia Anglicana, or, The history of Independency, the second part (London? : s.n., 1649).
Satire on Oliver Cromwell and the overthrow of Charles I.
Copy of an earlier version of this design, with the bark of the tree here rendered primarily in crosshatching and no period following the words "Inspiratio Diabolica" at lower left (see Stephens, nos. 737-739).
Inserted as item 172 into an album of collected prints, broadsides, drawings, and miscellaneous single sheet items, assembled by former owner Joseph Ames and entitled "Emblematical and satirical prints on persons and professions" (PML 145850).
Library's copy closely trimmed and slightly torn at corners with some loss to image.
Description
1 print : engraving ; image: 168 x 230 mm; sheet: 173 x 232 mm
Provenance
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Summary
Print shows Cromwell on the left, standing on an orb, labelled "Locus Lubricus", resting on the mouth of Hell, with lightening flashing above his head as he supervises the destruction of a large oak tree in whose branches are suspended the Eikon Basilike, the Bible, crown, sceptre and royal coat of arms, Magna Carta and other legal statutes; three soldiers chop at the base of the trunk while seven countrymen pull on a rope attached further up and gentlemen wearing ruffs chop at the branches with bill-hooks; in the distance two men walk off with branches towards a house in which people can be seen feasting; beneath the tree, pigs, labelled "Fatted for Slaughter", are feeding
Classification
Catalog link
Department