Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Swearing to the cutting monster, or, A scene in Bow Street

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James Gillray
1756-1815

Swearing to the cutting monster, or, A scene in Bow Street

[London] : Pub. May 20th, 1790, by H. Humphrey, No. 18 Old Bond Street, [1790]
etching, hand colored
image: approx. 237 x 330 mm; plate mark: 249 x 352 mm; sheet: 261 x 364 mm
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.205
Notes
By James Gillray.
Political cartoon inspired by the notorious case of slasher Renwick Williams, A.K.A. "the Monster".
Provenance

From the library of Gordon N. Ray.

Summary

Print shows a young woman standing upon a high stool, her skirts raised to show her posterior to three men behind her. She bends forward, pointing to Charles Fox who stands with his hands handcuffed in a booth behind a bar. The three men have been identified as Bow Street Justices Sir Sampson Wright, Addington, and Bond. Above their heads are the evenly balanced scales of Justice. In front of the woman stands a clerk meditatively biting his pen.

Associated names
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.
Classification
Department
Century prints