School for boxing

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William Dent
active 1783- 1793
School for boxing
Peel 1658
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Probably by William Dent, who created a number of caricatures issued by print publishers William Moore and W. Dickie.
Caption title.
Below caption title: Opened for instructing Gentlemen, on the lowest terms, in the noble Art of Pugilism ... Pupils made complete Masters of the most fashionable Blows in a few days by Master Humphreys ... Such Gentlemen as are prevented by weak constitutions from taking a lesson may be qualified for ... polite assemblies with artifical [sic] bloody noses & black eyes.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

Print shows a boxing school where a student, effete and dandified, and his muscular instructor (possibly intended to represent Richard Humphries), are engaged in a lesson; several thin and bewigged men stand nearby; one man, seated on a stool, seems to be suffering a loss of breath, while another another man is having paint applied to his eyes to give them the appearance of being blackened. The image is surrounded by simple floral border, incorporating images of bleeding noses, brandished fists, and blackened eyes.

Classification: 
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