JAMES GILLRAY (1756-1815)

Satires and Caricatures

Although only a tiny portion of Gillray’s extraordinary output, these prints cover: the drama and corruption of electioneering, the fall of a government, the political machinations of a newly formed government, a landmark tax-rising budget, the management (and mis-management) of the country’s finances, the continual soap opera of The Commons, debates on religion, the prospect (sour tasting) of a negotiated peace on the European continent … and the daunting ambitions of a populist and potentially tyrannical ruler abroad! Gillray is truly an artist for our times.

Each of these prints is loaded with political and cultural references, with wit and inuendo. We have tried to keep the catalogue entries concise while identifying the subjects and characters involved. The following sources, on which all our descriptions rely, should be referred to for further enjoyment and information …

Dorothy George, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum, (via entries on the BM website).
Richard Godfrey, James Gillray: The Art of Caricature, Tate, 2001.
Tim Clayton and Sheila O’Connell, Bonaparte and the British: Prints and Propoganda in the Age of Napoleon, British Museum, 2015.
Tim Clayton, James Gillray: A Revolution in Satire, Yale, 2022.
Jim Sherry, James Gillray: Caricaturist, (Website – www.james-gillray.org)

and for an approachable and hugely entertaining introduction to Gillray’s life (and a great Christmas present!)
Alice Loxton, Uproar: Satire, Scandal & Printmakers in Georgian London, Icon, 2024.

THIS PAGE WAS UPDATED WITH TWELVE NEWLY ACQUIRED PRINTS IN DECEMBER 2025

Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘A new way to pay the National-Debt’. Etching. ‘Pubd. April 21 1786. by Willm. Holland, No 66 Drury Lane’. ‘A satire on the debates of 5 and 6 Apr. 1786 on Pitt’s motion for a grant of £210,000 to discharge the debts on the Civil List […] Fox urged an additional grant for the Prince, whose debts were notorious’ (Dorothy George). Pitt is handing George III and Queen Charlotte a bag of money that he’s wheeled form the Treasury. Money spews from both his and George’s pockets. To the right, in rags, the Prince of Wales is offered a bill from Orleans. All this in sight of the legless and armless sailor in the foreground. 16.25×20.25 inches.
£1,500
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Wierd Sisters; Minister’s of Darkness; Minions of the Moon’. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. ‘Pubd Decr 23d 1791 by H. Humphrey No 18, Old Bond Street’. Dedicated at the top of the plate ‘To H: Fuzelli Esqr this attempt in the Caricatura-Sublime, is respectfully dedicated’. One of Gillray’s most famous prints, this is a satire of the Regency Crisis of 1788/89 and a play on Fuseli’s famous painting of the three witches (Exh. R.A. 1783). In place of the witches are Dundas, Pitt, and Thurlow. In the moon are the faces of Queen Charlotte (the new moon brightly lit) and the King (the old moon in the dark). The ‘Witches’ are uncertain of the future and hold their finger’s to their lips. They look to their patron the Queen in the hope that she, rather than the Prince of Wales, will take control of the monarchy in the King’s ‘absence’. 10.5×14.5 inches.
£3,500
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Tom Paine’s Nightly Pest’. Etching and aquatint. ‘Pubd. Decr. 10th. 1792, by H. Humphrey No 18 Old Bond Street’. This print was published in anticipation of Paine’s trial in December 1792. Paine, who had fled to France, lies in bed having a nightmare. Three judges wigs and the charges against him. Above these are the symbols of justice and a ribbon reading ‘The Scourge inexorable, and the tort’ring hour, awaits thee’. Paine is wearing a cap inscribed ‘Libertas’ and rests on an American flag. On his headboard are the faces of Fox and Priestly, his ‘Guardian Angels’. On his coat is a book that reads… ‘The Rights of Farthing Candles proving their Equality with the Sun & Moon …’ and stuffed into its pocket is a pamphlet titled ‘Common Sense or convincing Reasons for Britons turning Sans Culottes.’ 11.5×14.25 inches.
£2,000
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Patriotic Regeneration, viz. Parliament Reform’d, a la Franc̦oise, that is, honest men (i.e. Opposition) in the Seat of Justice’. Hand coloured etching, engraving and aquatint. ‘Pubd. March 2d. 1795 by H. Humphrey No 37, New Bond Street’. Revolution has come to Britain and a Reign of Terror style trial is taking place in the Commons, now home of the British Convention. Fox sits in the Speaker’s chair acting as judge. Below him sit Erskine and Sheridan with copies of ‘The Rights of Man’, Voltaire, Rousseau etc. Pitt stands in the dock, a rope around his neck held by Lauderdale behind him. The charges against him are read out by Stanhope. The opposition benches are peopled by the mob wearing bonnets-rouge. Dissenting Ministers are at the back, a barber, butcher and chimney sweep are in the front with the treasure of the monarchy and church at their feet. Copies of the Magna Carta and the Bible are burnt in a stove lower right. 12.25×16.75 inches.
£3,500
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘The Contrast, or Things as they Are’. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. ‘London. Pubd Novr 12th 1796. by H. Humphrey New Bond Street’. ‘Old England’ is contrasted with ‘New France’. In ‘Old England’ we see an orderly picture of Naval might. In the foreground stand three columns of Virtue (King), Honour (Lords) and Loyalty (Commons) held up by the ‘British Constitution / Its Basis the Happiness of the People’. ‘New France’ is a disordered picture of ruin. ‘Blood’, ‘Terror’ and ‘Oppression’ are held up ‘Democracy or French Constitution / Its Basis, Despotism’. At the bottom of the picture, discarded, are ‘Religion’, ‘Pubk Credit’, ‘Monarchy’, ‘Laws’, ‘Trade’, ‘Honor’, ‘Loyalty’, ‘Virtue’, ‘Arts’, ‘Science’. In the middle of the composition standing between the two countries are gallows, on the English side hangs Paine’s ‘Rights of Man’ on the French, ‘Classical Lectures on the Roman History’. 13.75×25.5 inches.
£4,500
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘The Apotheosis of Hoche’. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. ‘Pubd. 11th. 1798. by H. Humphrey, 27, St James’s Street’. General Hoche died on the Rhine in 1797 and he was given a vast funeral in the Champ de Mars. Hoche defeated the counter-revolutionary invasion at Quiberon, carried out the pacification of the Vendée and was the architect of the French attempted invasions of Britain (1797) and Ireland (1796). Hoche here sits on a rainbow above a land devastated by War. He plays a Guillotine as if it were a lyre and is surrounded by Jacobin cherubs. Above them are tablets inscribed with the commandments, adapted to give opposite instructions, and above this a triangle containing the word ‘Equality’. 19.75×15.25 inches.
£1,750
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Search-night; or state-watchmen, mistaking honest-men for conspirators. Vide state arrests’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd. March 20th. 1798. by H. Humphrey No. 27 St James’s Street’. Pitt and Dundas (the State-Watchmen) break their way into a room where Fox, Sheridan, Bedford, Norfolk, Horne Tooke and others have been plotting treasonous conspiracy. A pile of bonnets rouge sit in the corner of the room and above the fireplace is written ‘Vive l’Egalite’. On the far left stands the Earl of Moira, who had recently been arguing against the British parliament’s repression of the Irish people. Copies of the United Irishmen newspaper lie at his feet. In February Arthur O’Connor (editor of the United Irishmen), John Binns (Deputy of the London Corresponding Society) and other members of the United Irishmen were arrested by Pitt’s Secret Service on their way to France to help a French invasion by raising a rebellion in Ireland. A ‘Plan of Invasion’ and ‘Proceedings of the London Corresponding Society’ sit on the table. 10.25×14.25 inches.
£1,500
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘London Corresponding Society alarm’d, Vide Guilty Consciences’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd. April 20th. 1798. by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street’. The London Corresponding Society meet around a table in the basement of an inn. The tankard on the table tells us this is the ‘Tom Treason Hell-Fire Celler, Chick Lane’. The book open on the floor identifies the characters as ‘Ts Firebrand Secretary’, ‘Forging Sam’, ‘Barber Joe’ [central with his back to us], ‘Dick Butcher’ [to the barber’s left], ‘Dissenting Nick’, ‘Sheepshead Will’ and ‘Cut down Lary’. On the wall behind them are portraits of Horne Tooke and Tom Payne. The chairman reads a paper announcing the arrests of O’Conner, Binns, Evans, and Quigley, all members of the Corresponding Society, in February 1798. By April all of the committee of the Society had been arrested and in July 1799 it was suppressed by name in an Act against seditious and treasonable societies. 10×7.5 inches.
£1,250
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Stealing Off; or Prudent Secession: “… courageous Chief! / The first in Flight!”‘. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. ‘Pubd Novr 6th 1798, by H. Humphrey. 27 St James’s Street’. In May 1797, due to a series of defeats in the Commons relating to the Alien and Sedition laws, Fox and his supporters said they would secede from parliament and only take part in essential votes. Gradually events stacked up against the Opposition and bolstered the Government positions, capped by Nelson’s victory on the Nile. Fox’s decision to secede looked increasingly like an attempt to escape parliament, rather than an act of protest. In this print we see Fox fleeing from the Commons Chamber with Charles Grey (the Grey Hound) and Michael Angelo Taylor. Through the doorway Pitt’s hands hold scrolls announcing Nelson’s Victory, the defeat of the Irish Rebellion etc. The opposition benches eat papers (i.e. their own words) reading variously ‘Loyalty of the Irish Nation’; ‘Homage to the French Con[stitution], ‘French Lib[erty]’ etc. The subtitle of the print, ‘Courageous Chief […” is an allusion to an episode in Paradise Lost when Gabriel mocks Satan for leaving the fallen angels behind as he flies to Earth. 10×14 inches.
£2,000
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Exhibition of a Democratic-Transparency, – with its Effect upon Patriotic Feelings: Representing, the Secret-Committee throwing a Light upon the Dark Sketches of a Revolution found among the Papers of the Jacobin Societies lately apprehended.’ Etching and aquatint. ‘Pubd. April 15th. 1799. by H. Humphrey 27 St James Street London’. Inscribed below the title in an early nineteenth century hand. The Report of the Secret Committee on persons and societies in England and Ireland engaged in treasonous conspiracy was presented by Dundas on 15 Mar. 1799. Here, members of the Secret Committee are seated around a table examining documents relating to the United Irishmen and other revolutionary societies. A transparency lit by a lamp on the committee table hangs from the ceiling. Four scenes on the transparency show revolutionaries ‘Plundering the Bank’, ‘Assassinating the Parliament’, ‘Seizing the Crown’ and ‘Establishing the French Government’. On the floor beneath the transparency are documents reading, ‘Names of Traitors now sufferd to remain at large’, ‘Oath of the Members of the Society of the United Irishmen in London’, ‘Account of ye Lodge of United Englishmen, & of the Monks of St Ann’s Shrine’ and ‘Proceedings of the London Corresponding Society with a list of all the Members.’ To the right of the composition, escaping and in fear of being exposed by the light are members of the Opposition including Fox, Erskine, Norfolk, Tierney, Sheridan, Burdett, Moira and Bedford. 14.75×18 inches.
£1,500
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Effusions of a Pot of Porter,-or-Ministerial Conjurations for Supporting the War’. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. ‘Publish’d Novr 29th 1799. by H. Humphrey. 27 St James’s Street’. In 1799 bad weather effected the harvest which, combined with the war with France, had a great effect on prices, including the price of Porter and tobacco. Supporters of the opposition put the blame squarely on Pitt, seen here as Death on the White Horse of Hanover. 14.25×10.25 inches.
£2,750
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Tales of Wonder!’. Etching and aquatint. ‘Publish’d Feby. 1st. 1802, by H. Humphrey, 27. St James’s Street, London’. Of this print, Dorothy George writes … ‘A satire on the blood-curdling romances of ‘Monk’ Lewis and his school. ‘Tales of Wonder’ by Lewis (contributions by Scott and Southey) appeared 1801. ‘The Monk’, which narrowly escaped prosecution for indecency, is, it is implied, unsuitable for family reading’. She also notes that ‘later impressions have an inscription in the upper border: ‘This attempt to describe the effects of the Sublime & Wonderful, is dedicated to M. G. Lewis Esqr, M.P.’.’ 10.12×14.06 inches.
£1,500
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘A Phantasmagoria: – Scene – Conjuring up an Armed Skeleton’. Etching and aquatint. ‘Pubd Jany 5th 1803. by J. Gillray. 27 St James’s Street’. This is a satire of the Peace of Amiens, presented in an oval on a dark ground as if a Phantasmagoria produced by a lantern (then a new entertainment). Addington, Hawkesbury and Fox are the three witches wearing tricolours and brewing a cauldron. A plume of smoke and steam labelled ‘Peace’ surrounds Britannia represented as a skeleton. Addington feeds the cauldron with coins and waves an olive branch wrapped with a serpent. Hawkesbury feeds the fire beneath the cauldron with papers inscribed: ‘Dominion of the Sea’, ‘Egypt’, ‘Malta’, ‘Cape’, ‘Continental Alliances’, ‘Honduras’, ‘Switzerland’, ‘British Isles’ etc. In the foreground is the head of the British Lion on which sits the French cock. Wilberforce in monk’s robes kneels chanting a ‘Hymn of Peace’. 13.75×10 inches.
£1,750
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘The King of Brobdingnag, and Gulliver’. Etching and aquatint. ‘Pubd. June 26th. 1803 -by H- Humphrey 27 St Jamess Street’. George III, looking through a spy-glass at Napoleon, standing on his hand, says … ‘My little friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable panegyric upon Yourself and Country, but from what I can gather from your own relation & the answers I have with much pains wringed & extorted from you, I cannot but conclude you to be one of the most pernicious, little odious reptiles, that nature ever suffer’d to crawl upon the surface of the Earth’. 14×10 inches.
£975
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Middlesex-Election. 1804. – “a Long-Pull, a Strong-Pull, and a Pull-all-Together”‘. Hand coloured etching. Inscribed with the names of the people depicted in an early nineteenth century hand. ‘Publish’d Augt 7th 1804. by H. Humphrey, 27, St James’s Street.’ This depicts an episode in the back-and-forth contest between the Mainwarings and Francis Burdett. William Mainwaring had been defeated by Burdett in 1802 but the election was declared void in 1804 and his son George Mainwaring stood in his father’s place. George was elected but the result was reversed in favour of Burdett in 1805 and then back in favour of George in 1806… The radical candidate Burdett is being drawn to a hustings, his carriage is emblazoned with ‘Egalite’, ‘The Torch of Liberty’ and ‘Plenty’ (represented by a tankard with a profile of Napoleon on it). Sheridan, Erskine and Tierney stand on the back of the carriage. Sheridan is holding a banner showing Pitt whipping Britannia, Erskine holds a banner with the republican slogan ‘The Good-Old Cause’, Tierney holds a pole with a key tied to it and a banner reading ‘No Bastille’. Behind them are a group of identifiable supporters dressed as butchers wielding their knives. The carriage is driven by Horne Tooke and pulled by Fox (a chimney-sweep), Norfolk (in striped shirt and apron), Derby (a jockey), Lansdowne, Bedford (a farmer), Carlisle (a tailor) and others. At the far left of the composition is a post from which a rat labelled ‘No Ministerial Rats’ is hanging. In the background, under cover, Mainwaring makes a speech. To the right a pub called ‘The Constitution’ with posters in support of Mainwaring is rushed by a mob who throw objects at the pub’s sign. 20×13.75 inches.
£2,500
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘The Genius of France nursing her darling’. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. ‘Publishd Novr 26. 1804. by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street London’. An ugly figure of France takes up the pose of Britannia. She is wearing a Bonnet Rouge and holds aloft a small Napoleon wearing royal robes over a general’s uniform. In May, Napoleon had been ‘chosen’ as emperor. In a bloody hand France holds a rattle surmounted with a crown which Napoleon points to – his coronation was to come in December. France sits on a chair decorated with a guillotine and decapitated heads. Behind her is a shield decorated with a tricolour and the head of Louis XVI. Behind the shield stands a bloodied spear. France sings a well known Children’s Song from the period, cleverly referencing Pepin, the first French King. Beneath the print is a quote from King Lear: ‘False of Heart, light of Ear, bloody of Hand / Fox in Stealth, Wolf in Greediness, Dog in Madness / Lion in Prey: – bless thy Five Wits’. 14×10 inches.
£1,500
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘End of the Irish farce of Catholic Emancipation’. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. A lengthy quotation from Paradise Lost sits in the title line. ‘Pubd May 17th 1805 by H. Humphrey, 27, St James’s Street’. The Irish petition for Catholic Emancipation introduced by Grenville and Fox was soundly defeated in both Houses. A procession of petitioners led by Grenville (in bishop’s robes), Buckingham (a monk), Moira and Fox (a Cardinal on an Irish Bull wearing a medal showing Buonaparte) proceed over a globe showing England and Ireland. They attempt to climb golden stairs leading to St Peter and a doorway labelled ‘Popish Supremacy’, but are prevented by Pitt, Hawkesbury and Sidmouth who blow them back. Behind Fox, are Grattan, Sheridan (holding a monstrance with the inital ‘N’ for Napoleon), Grey, Holland and Petty. In the foreground, are Clarence (holding a chamber pot of Holy water), Bedford (holding a book that reads ‘Transubstantiation or Oil-Cake turn’d into real Mutton’) and Norfolk (filling a chalice with Porter). In the sky, God holds scales showing the balance of ‘Truth’ over the Papal Crown. Below this, the Catholic Emancipation petition, an altar, vestments, relics and papers are cast into the air. 15×18 inches.
£2,250
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Tiddy-Doll, the great French-Gingerbread-Baker, drawing out a new Batch of Kings – his Man, Hopping Talley, Mixing up the Dough’. Etching and aquatint. ‘Publishd. Jany. 23d. 1806, by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street, London’. ‘A brilliant satire on Napoleonic imperialism after Austerlitz, remarkable also for its prophetic character’ (Dorothy George). Napoleon the baker takes three freshly baked Kings (Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden) out of his ‘New French Oven for Imperial Gingerbread’. At Napoleon’s feet is an ‘Ash Hole for broken Gingerbread’ into which has been swept Italy, Holland, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria etc. Behind him are cannon balls to be used as fuel. In the lower left of the composition is a basket containing ‘Kinglings’ and a fool’s hat from which spew drowns, cardinal’s hats etc. On a chest on the right sit ‘Little Dough Viceroy’s intended for the next new batch’, at the front are ‘Sheridan, Fox, Moira and Derby’. In the background Talleyrand stands at the ‘Political Kneading Trough’. 10×14.75 inches.
£2,000
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Le Diable-Boiteux; or The Devil upon Two Sticks, conveying John Bull to the Land of Promise’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Publishd Feby 8th 1806 by H. Humphrey 27 St James s Street London’. Fox is depicted as the devil with cloven hoofs and wings inscribed ‘Honesty’ and ‘Humility’. He is carried to power with the help of Sidmouth and Grenville (his crutches). He wears a bonnet rouge with tricolour cockade and the triple plume of the Prince of Wales. His cloak is inscribed ‘Loyalty, Independence & Public-Good’. John Bull clings to the cloak. Fox shouts ‘Come along Johnny! – take fast hold of my Cloak, & I’ll bring you to the land of Milk & Honey!!!’ John Bull answers ‘O yes, I will try to hold fast! – but I’m damnably afraid that your Cloak may slip off before we get there, & I may chance to break my Neck!’. At the bottom of the composition are St Paul’s and St James’s Palace. Fox is flying away from them and towards the façade of Carlton House over which a sun rises labelled ‘New Constitution’. In the clouds are three scenes, ‘Liberty’ (a card game), Chastity (Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert) and ‘Temperance’ (men drinking around a table). 13.5×9.5 inches.
£1,500
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘The Cabinetical Balance: NB The representation of, the astonishing strength & Influence of the Rays from the Rising-Sun, is taken from Sir Isaac Newton’s Theory of Light’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd Feby 16th 1806 – by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street’. On a scales are the three main factions in the Ministry of all the Talents, formed only a few days earlier. On top of the scales are Addington and his ally Ellenborough. In the cups of the scales are Grenville and his supporters, the ‘Broad-Bottomites’, and Fox and his supporters, the ‘No-Bottomites’. From behind clouds a rising sun with the coronet of the Prince of Wales beams light at the new government. In the distance, a sun containing the crown of the King sets over a globe. Above this sun is the ghost of a weeping Pitt. 14×9.75 inches.
£975
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Pacific-Overtures, or A Flight from St Cloud’s “over the Water to Charley”. A new Dramatic Peace now Rehearsing’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd April 5th 1806, by H. Humphrey St James’s Street’. Inscribed in the margins in an early nineteenth century hand. The new Ministry’s peace overtures with France are heavily satirised as treacherous. At a theatre, the King has stepped out of the Royal Box and on to the stage, beside him is an anchor and behind him stands a statue of the late Pitt with one hand resting on a pillar inscribed ‘Integrity’. The painted set at the back shows a British man-o-war named ‘Royal Sovereign’. Napoleon stands to the right on a cloud. Gesturing to a scroll held by Talleyrand he says ‘There’s my terms’. The King replies, ‘[…] WE are not in the habits of giving up either “Ships, or Commerce, or Colonies”, merely because little Boney is in a pet to have them!!!’ In the orchestra pit is the new Ministry each playing from a sheet of paper humorously inscribed. From behind Talleyrand, Arthur O’Connor calls to Fox , ‘Remember my Friend your Oath, – “Our Politicks are the same!”‘. In the boxes to the right are The Prince and Mrs Fitzherbert. Above them are Horne Tooke and Burdett. Grattan is above the stage door and above him are the Duke of Clarence and Mrs. Jordan. 11.5×15 inches.
£2,750
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Comfort’s of a Bed of Roses’. Etching and Aquatint. ‘Pubd April 21st 1806, by H. Humphrey, 27, St James’s Street’. Fox, asleep in bed with his wife and wearing a Bonnet Rouge, is taken hold of by Napoleon and the ghost of Pitt. Behind Napoleon are the ‘Horrors of Invasion’. Above Fox is an eagle with a tricolour collar that reads ‘Prussia hovers menacingly over Fox’. From under the bed come roses and thorns on which are inscribed the subjects of division within the Ministry. Dorothy George identifies the subject of this print as Windam’s plan to reorganise the army and his argument with Castleraegh, who defended Pitt’s system. In parliament Castlereagh stated that given ” … the difficulties and embarrassments under which they are disposed to represent themselves … [they] may be considered as on a Bed of Roses!” Fox answered ” … Really it is insulting, to tell me I am on a bed of roses, when I feel myself torn and stung by brambles and nettles, whichever way I turn”. 10.5×14 inches.
£875
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘A Great Stream from a Petty-Fountain; or John Bull swamped in the Flood of new-Taxes; Cormorants Fighting in the Steam’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd May 9th 1806, by H. Humphrey, 27 St James’s Street’. This is a satire on the Budget which increased income-tax. Included in the rises were an extension of taxes on tea, and a change to the taxation on auctions. On the right the face of Henry Petty forms a fountain from which pour his tax measures, which then flood out to sea. The horizon is inscribed ‘Unfathomable Sea of Taxation’. In the sea John Bull’s boat sinks and he drops his oar inscribed ‘William Pitt’. The Government are cormorants. Grenville, the largest, swallows two fish titled ‘Treasury’ and ‘Exchequer’. Behind him are Sheridan and Sidmouth pecking at the fish below his feet. To the left of Grenville is Fox, greedily eating lots of fish; Moira, with a lobster; Windham swoops on some crab; Howick has caught some eels. Bedford, Horne Took and Burdett hurry to join the feast on the right. 9.5×13.75 inches.
£1,500
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘”The Friend of the people” & his Petty-New-Tax-Gatherer, paying John Bull a visit’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd May 28th 1806 by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street’. A satire on Petty’s tax rising budget. Fox and Petty knock on John Bull’s door to collect taxes, their open book listing the new measures. John Bull with his dependants around him, shouts from the window ‘Taxes? Taxes? Taxes? why how am I to get Money to pay them all? I shall very soon have neither a House, nor Hole to put my head in’. Fox replies, ‘a house to put your head in? – why what the Devil should you want with a House? …’. Above John Bull’s door is a sign reading ‘John Bull, late dealer in the Shop below, lately Moved Upstairs’ and between the heads of Fox and Petty can be seen a sign on the shuttered window of the shop reading ‘This Shop to Let, Enquire of the Tax Gatherers’. The window above this has been bricked up to escape the famous window tax. To the right street urchins drink from a water pump labelled ‘New Brewery For the Benefit of the Poor’ and to the left of the composition stands a barrel labelled ‘Home Brew’d Small Beer ten Shillings a Barrel Duty’. Both reference the new taxation of home brewing introduced in the Budget. In the background is a pawnbrokers called ‘Broad-Bottom Pop-Shop’. Bags of money can be seen in the windows and a cart (‘New Tax Cart’) laden with belongings stands outside. 13.5×9.5 inches.
£975
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Visiting the Sick’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd July 28th 1806, by H. Humphrey 27. St James’s Street.’ Fox, dangerously ill, is visited by the Prince of Wales at the Duke of Bedford’s house in Arlington Street. To his right is a chamber pot sitting on top of ‘Negotiations for Peace between Great Britain and France’. To his left, on the floor, are a dice-box and dice. He is surrounded by what appear to be his allies. They are, in fact, the political factions he was able to hold together in the Ministry of all the Talents. Mrs Fitzherbert encourages him to make confession to the Bishop on his left – Fox retorts, ‘I abhor all Communion which debars us the comfort of the Cup! – will no one give me a Cordial?’. On the far right are Sheridan and Howick. To the left of the Prince are Petty, Windham and Moira. In the doorway are Grenville, Sidmouth Buckingham and Temple. In the foreground Mrs Fox is attended by Derby. 10.25×14 inches.
£750
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘John Bull and the Sinking Fund – a P[r]etty scheme for Reducing the Taxes & paying off the National Debt!’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd Feby 23th 1807. by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street.’ This is a satire of Petty’s ‘New Plan of Finance’. John Bull crouches on hands and knees on the ‘Rock of Broad Bottom’d Security’, on his back sits ‘The Sinking-Fund i.e. taxations of 42 Millions pr. Annum’, on top of this stand Petty, shovelling coin into the hats of government ministers who stand in front of the Treasury. John Bull says, ‘Toss away! Toss away! my good Boy! toss away!!! – oh how kind it is, to ease me of this Terrible Load!’. Petty says in return ‘Patience, Johnny! – ar’nt I tossing-away as fast as I can? ar’nt I reducing of your Taxes to sh/17 & 6d in the Pound? – why you ought to think yourself quite comfortable & Easy, Johnny!’. On the right stand the Opposition, behind them a broken column inscribed ‘Sacred to the Memory of departed Greatness’ and ‘W Pitt’ and behind that a weeping willow. 9.25×13.25 inches.
£1,500
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘A Plumper for Paul! or The Little Taylor done over!’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Publish’d March 13th 1807, by H. Humphrey S James’s Street’. Paull presents a petition opposing Sheridan’s return to Parliament for Westminster. The accusation against Sheridan was bribery and corruption. The Speaker’s rebuff of the petition is dramatically shown as an explosion of lightning with Sheridan’s face, read with fury, at the centre. Paull, represented as a tailor wearing a bonnet rouge, is knocked off the back of a goose (Burdett), which escapes to the right along with Bosville, Horne Tooke and Cobbett. Behind Paull are ‘The Mob’, being supporters of his petition. 9.75×13.75 inches.
£750
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘A kick at the broad-bottoms! i.e. Emancipation of “All the Talents” &c. Vide. the Fate of ye Catholic Bill’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd March 23d 1807. by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street’. The scene is the fall of the Ministry of All the Talents, caused by the King’s opposition to their Catholic Emancipation Bill followed by his demand that they should sign a pledge never to raise the question of Catholic emancipation again. The King, exclaiming ‘What! What! bring in the Papists! … what you thought I was like little Boney …’, kicks Grenville in his famously broad bottom. The rest of the government cascade out of the picture. The ‘Catholic Bill’ tears over Howick’s shoulder, below him is Buckingham and Ellenborough. Sheridan is in a Harlequin costume and Petty and Erskine appear on the floor in the foreground. Behind the main group are Windham, Moira, Lauderdale and Sidmouth. 10.25×14 inches.
£875
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘The Funeral-Procession of Broad-Bottom’. Hand coloured etching. Inscribed with the names of the people depicted in an early nineteenth century hand. ‘London Pubd April 6th 1807 by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street’. The Ministry of All the Talents, formed by Grenville after the death of Pitt, was made up of a cross-party selection of the great politicians of the age. Having failed to end the war with France the government fell over the question of Catholic Emancipation. Here a funeral procession for the government, lead by Petty is prevented from entering church. Sidmouth, Lord St. Vincent, and Windham are pall bearers. Grenville lies on top of the coffin, face down, his famous ‘Broad Bottom’ on display. Behind are Buckingham, the Pope and Temple; Howick, Sheridan and Fitzpatrick; with Erskine, Ellenborough, Lauderdale and Moira at the back. 9.75×24.5 inches.
£1,250
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Election Candidates; – or – the Republican Goose at the Top of the Pol(l)e’. Hand coloured etching. ‘Pubd May 20th. 1807 – by H Humphrey 27 St. James’s Street’. The scene is a hustings in Covent Garden for the Westminster Election of 1807. Candidates climb the election pole with Burdett (the Goose) at the top, supported by the pitchfork of Horne Tooke who has devil’s wings labelled ‘Deceit’ and ‘Sedition’. Burdett hisses at the ‘Sun of the Constitution’. The candidates below him are Cochrane, holding a bludgeon inscribed ‘Reform’, Elliott wrapped in a beer barrel, Sheridan, in his Harlequin costume, and Paull, who has fallen from the pole. Below the pole are Burdett’s supporters dressed as characters of the mob; Windham, a sweep, has ‘Burdett & Reformation’ on his shovel. Temple, Howick and Greville are butchers with cleavers inscribed ‘Burdett & Popery’, ‘Burdett & Revenge’ and ‘Burdett and Opposition’. 14.25×10 inches.
£1,250
Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Phaeton alarm’d!’. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. ‘Publish’d March 22d 1808. – by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street’. In her analysis of this print Dorothy George writes … ‘The Ministry, with the world in flames, and dominated by Napoleon and his Russian tool, are attacked by the forces of faction. According to the allegory, Canning will be hurled to destruction for his presumption in driving the horses of the sun, that is of his father Apollo, or Pitt. The presumption seems to be the Copenhagen expedition. But Canning himself is the Sun of Anti-Jacobinism and the thunderbolts are directed against his enemies. The flames of war have reached America […] Disputes over the blockade threatened to embroil the United States with Britain. Turkey had come into the war zone by the expedition to the Dardanelles, and the invasion of Egypt (evacuated Sept. 1807) 13.5×15 inches.
£1,750
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘Apotheosis of the Corsican-Phoenix’. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. ‘Publishd – August 2d 1808 – by H. Humphrey 27 St James’s Street’. In this print ‘The Spanish venture is prophetically depicted as Napoleon’s self-immolation. The Spanish rising, caused Napoleon in 1808 to abandon his plans for the partition of Turkey and the conquest of Egypt and India’ (Dorothy George). Napoleon, on the Pyrenean Mountains, sits on a globe held up by muskets. On the globe European countries, Turkey and Algeria burn. The plumes of smoke coming off the burning Pheonix envelop the Dove of peace. 14×10.5 inches.
£1,250
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Gillray, James (1756 – 1815) ‘The Valley of the Shadow of Death’. Hand coloured etching and aquatint. ‘Publish’d Septr 24th 1808 by H Humphrey 27 St James’s Street London’. Made early in Peninsular War, Dorothy George describes this print as reflecting the ‘… exaggerated hopes of the immediate military and diplomatic consequences of the Spanish rising’. Napoleon is stopped in his tracks by the British Lion and is beset on all sides by the threat of danger… Rushing towards him are Death, wearing a Spanish hat and cloak, a Portuguese wolf and Sicilian Terrier. Behind him are the German Eagle nad Russian Bear, whose chain he has dropped. The American Rattle Snake, Rhenish Rats, Dutch Frogs and Prussian ‘Scare-crow’ appear from water at his feet. In the clouds are two French officers who say ‘Remember Junot’ and ‘Remember Dupont’, both who had been defeated. At the top of the composition are the Papal Tiara and the Spirit of Charles XII. Above all is the Turkish new moon ‘Rising in Blood’, the moon itself showing the waning ‘French Influence’ and waxing of ‘British Influence’. 10.5×15.25 inches.
£2,500
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