Accession number
PML 146639, p. 353 (facing)
Published
[London?] : Publish'd according to act of Parliament, 1753.
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Notes
Library's copy trimmed within platemark.
See footnote to No. 3190 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 3.
Advertised in the Gentleman's Magazine, February 1753, p. 103, and December 1753, p. 593.
Print inlaid into a larger leaf and inserted after p. 353 into v. 2 of an extra-illustrated copy of Henry Morley's Memoirs of Batholomew Fair (London : Chapman and Hall, 1859), see PML 146639.
See footnote to No. 3190 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 3.
Advertised in the Gentleman's Magazine, February 1753, p. 103, and December 1753, p. 593.
Print inlaid into a larger leaf and inserted after p. 353 into v. 2 of an extra-illustrated copy of Henry Morley's Memoirs of Batholomew Fair (London : Chapman and Hall, 1859), see PML 146639.
Description
1 print on laid paper : etching ; image: 172 x 237 mm, on sheet 190 x 240 mm
Provenance
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Summary
Print shows monkeys and dogs dressed as humans, performing various different acts within the show 'Mrs Midnight's Animal Comedians', as trained by 'Mrs Midnight' (pseudonym for Christopher Smart); the scenes displayed under three arches, the central and largest showing a 'siege', with stage scenery set for the animals to climb ladders against a high wall, behind which houses are shown to burn; on either side smaller vignettes of different acts, including agility tricks, monkeys riding dogs, seated at a dinner table, dressed in a range of costumes reflecting eighteenth century London society; the entertainment designed to challenge the traditional social order in London.
Classification
Catalog link
Department