The kettle hooting the porridge-pot

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James Gillray
1756-1815
The kettle hooting the porridge-pot
[London] : Pubd July 23d 1782 by P.J. Leatherhead, [1782]
etching, hand colored
image: 219 x 330 mm; plate mark: 248 x 351 mm; sheet: 243 x 342 mm
Peel 2390
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

George suggests that the imprint is probably fictitious.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

Print shows Shelburne as a kettle and Fox as a porridge-pot. Shelburne's body is in the form of a kettle, much blackened underneath; the handle, attached to his chest and shoulders, extends over his head. He points at Fox; his left foot is on the neck of a goose, which lies on its back on the ground. He is saying, "Oh do but look how black his Arse is!" Fox, with the head of a fox, his body a large circular pot, blackened underneath, is running away with an alarmed expression. In the centre of the design is a sign-post, its arm, pointing to the right, is terminated by a well-drawn hand holding a die in its fingers, but pointing with its fore-finger in the direction in which Fox is running. The arm of the post is inscribed "TO BROOKS'S"; from it hangs a rope with a noose at the end of it. On the post is hung up a placard inscribed "To be Lett- either as a Gibbet or Direction Post".

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