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.

A pig in a poke : whist, whist.

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James Gillray
1756-1815

A pig in a poke : whist, whist.

Published

[London] : Pubd Dec. 10th 1788, by S.W. Fores, No. 3 Piccadilly, [1788]

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2679
Notes
Possibly by Gillray. Cf. BM Satires.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

"Four men, their feet cut off by the lower margin, play whist at a rectangular table; each has one card in his hand and is about to play the last trick, the tricks piled on the table show that each side has six tricks. Sir Joseph Mawbey (left) looks at his partner (right), a very stout man wearing a legal wig, both hold court cards (diamonds). The man seated on the farther side of the table looks sideways at Mawbey, saying, "O--h! you've brought your Pigs to a fine Market!" His partner, in back view, is a very thin man whose hair extends grotesquely on each side of his head; he holds the five of diamonds. From Mawbey's pocket projects a document, 'Surrey Commission', and a book, 'Burn Justice' (Burn's well-known 'Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer', used by all acting J.P.s, not an exhortation to incendiarism as Evans supposes). Above his head is a picture of a pig feeding from a trough."--British Museum online catalogue.

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