Lettered with title, text within, artist’s name and publishing details: ‘Pub by SW Fores, Dec. 20. 1798, No 50, Piccadilly – Folio’s of Caracatures [sic] lent out for the Evening’
A lion with the head of William Pitt the Younger and a unicorn with that of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount of Melville support the escutcheon framing the vignette showing a family seated at dinner that is interrupted by a tax-collector (left). He carries off a large pudding, a banner overhead reads, “Tax on Income”, to the dismay of husband, wife, and three children only a small slice of pudding is left on the dish… Pitt says: “Give all thou cans’t / And let me dream the rest;” [Pope’s ‘Eloisa to Abelard’] Within Dundas banner: “Man wants but little here below, Nor wants, that little long!” [Young’s ‘Night Thoughts’.] Surmounting the crest is a lean ‘Fortunatus’s Purse’ and ‘Wishing Cap’; these rest on a cushion inscribed ‘Value Above what you are Worth Nothing’. Pitt and Dundas stand on a scroll reading: ‘BLESSED IS HE THAT EXPECTETH NOTHING. – FOR HE SHALL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED’.
Item Date: 1798
Measurement: Plate: 12.25" by 9.5"
Material: Etching on paper
Item Condition: Good, small paper loss at upper right margin; loss at bottom right margin... some toning as depicted.
Price: $295
SKU 110-1011
For More Information, Please Contact David Hillier at 978-597-8084 or email drh@aaawt.com.
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