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.

The Union Club / Js. Gillray, invt. & fect.

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James Gillray
1756-1815

The Union Club / Js. Gillray, invt. & fect.

London : Publish'd. Jany. 21st. 1801, by H. Humphrey, St James's Street, [1801]
etching, hand colored
image: 280 x 436 mm; plate mark: 299 x 439 mm; sheet: 340 x 481 mm
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.508
Notes
Beneath the design is engraved the toast to the Union: "We'll join hand in hand, all Party shall cease ...[etc.]
Provenance

From the library of Gordon N. Ray.

Summary

Print shows a drunken debauch in the new Union Club, where the chief members of the Opposition have gathered around a long table where Fox, grossly corpulent, sits in an armchair asleep, his feet on the table, a pipe in one hand. Nearly opposite his feet is the chair of state, on the table; on the empty seat is the Prince's cocked hat with triple plume, his motto 'Ich Di[en]' within the crown. The chair is surrounded by broken wine-bottles; its former occupant, the Prince, lies on his back under the table, one arm flung over Lord Stanhope, who lies unconscious, clasping a bottle. In the foreground, opposite the Prince, Norfolk lies with his head against the seat of his overturned chair, looking very ill. Behind him two waiters bring in a full tub of Whiskey Punch, which they spill; one treads on the face of the prostrate Nicholls. All those who are not incapacitated or brawling are toasting the Union. Among the revellers may additionally be recognized the figures of Lansdowne, Parr, Moira, Lord Clermont, Sheridan, Camelford, Derby, Montagu Mathew, Skeffington, Bedford, Tierney, Walpole, Erskine, Queensberry, General Davies the caricaturist, Lord Cholmondeley, Lord Kirkcudbright, George Hanger, Sturt, and Tyrwhitt Jones. In the background, crowded with figures, is wild confusion, with a free fight in progress: a military officer raises a chair to smite; poker, brush, tongs, a stool, bottles, glasses, &c, are weapons or missiles. A lighted chandelier is being broken. In a musician's gallery (right) five men, in Windsor uniform, impassively play 'God save the King' on wind instruments.

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