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.

Sale of the cabinet stud

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S. W. Fores

Sale of the cabinet stud

[London] : Pubd March 8th 1787 by I. Dracey, Paternoster Row, [1787].
etching
image: 221 x 331 mm; sheet: 248 x 407 mm
Peel 1584
Notes
Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

Print shows a horse auction at Tattersall's, with the auctioneer standing in his rostrum with his hammer, ready to sell a procession of horses with human heads, numbered "2" to "14"; there is no key with the print, and the auctioneer is numbered "1". The different horses, &c, are arranged in four rows, the first consisting of the auctioneer (left), the gateway of Tattersall's, and no. 2, a powerful horse (right) with the King's profile, led by a youth clearly intended for Pitt. The King tramples on a paper inscribed "National Debt 240,000,000" and excretes upon "Mag[na] Cha[rta]"; nos. 3 to 6 are in the second row: 3, "The Thrash Bag of the Cabinet", is a horse with the head of Thurlow, the bag of the Great Seal is across the saddle; the man leading him carries the mace; no. 4 (Pretyman), is a horse eating from a sieve inscribed "India Corn" (implying bribery), ridden by a small man wearing a bishop's mitre and saying "The Road to Lincoln"; no. 5 is a horse with the head of Dundas, with Hastings placing on his back a large sack inscribed "Eastern Oats for Scotch Hacks"; no. 6 is a horse inscribed "Back Stairs" and wearing a baron's coronet reversed and inscribed "Prostitution"; no. 7 is a horse with the head of Eden, with a pack on his back inscribed "For the French King, a Staple Commodity of Gt Britain in return for a Pair of Lace Ruffles and 6 Fans"; no. 8 is a horse inscribed "Commissary" (i.e. Brook Watson) with a wooden leg inscribed "One of the Rotten Members of the City of London", drawing a two-wheeled cart in which sits a man saying "We the Lord Mayor & Alderman, or Desert knife Madge Nicholson"; no. 9 is a horse with the head of Wilkes, and behind the rider is a bundle inscribed "The Apostate Baggage N° 45", shown trampling the "Mag[na] Cha[rta]" and Bible as his near hind-leg kicks Britannia in the face; no. 10 is a horse with an aquiline profile (Carmarthen?) holding up a wine-glass in his near fore-foot; no. 11 is a clumsy horse drawing a farm-cart inscribed "Royal Filth", the profile not unlike Lord Sydney; no. 12 is a horse with a packet on his saddle inscribed "An Eastern Bulse to adorn the British Crown" (presumably Hastings, but not resembling ); no. 13 is the Duke of Richmond firing a cannon with his near fore-foot, a bundle on his back is inscribed "Plans of Fortifications"; the last horse, no. 14, is a lean animal inscribed "Lean Hog" (Sir Joseph Mawbey?), led by a youth blowing a horn (a sow gelder) as a dog urinates against his fore-legs.

Associated names
Fores, S. W., publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.
Classification
Department