A sale of English beauties in the East Indies

A sale of English beauties in the East Indies

Item Information

Title:
A sale of English beauties in the East Indies
Description:
The scene is supposed to be drawn from one of the landing-places in the East Indies. A merchantman has arrived with a cargo which has proved a source of excitement and attraction to residents of all classes. The fair sex being in great apparent request, a shipload of English beauties on arriving in the East would naturally produce commotion and competition among natives and foreigners alike. A dapper auctioneer is mounted on a bale of books lately arrived, a similar package forms his desk, and he is knocking down a very attractive article, which seems likely to bring a handsome figure. A fine tall beauty is under the scrutiny of a rich Nabob ; a young officer is trying to win her ear, and an envoy from the Government, with instructions in his pocket from the Governor-General, is calculating the lady's height with his walking-stick held as a measure. In the background is pictured a large warehouse for 'unsaleable goods from Europe to be returned by the next ship' and several damsels are in great distress at being forced to take refuge within this unpopular establishment.
Artist:
Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827
Date:
[1810?]
Format:
Prints
Genre:
Etchings
Caricatures
Location:
Boston Public Library
Arts Department
Collection (local):
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827). Prints and Drawings
Series:
The Caricature Magazine or Hudibrastic Mirror Vol. 5
Subjects:
Auctions
Seduction
Crowds
Extent:
1 print : hand-colored etching ; sheet 26 x 39 cm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/tq57ph921
Terms of Use:
No Copyright - United States icon No Copyright - United States
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Publisher:
London, No. 111 Cheapside : Thomas Tegg
Language:
English
Notes:
Title from item.
Grego, II, p. 115, 197
On item: 74
Notes (acquisition):
The Albert H. Wiggin Collection, 1941
Notes (date):
Date from catalogue raisonné.
Notes (citation):
Grego, Joseph. "Rowlandson the caricaturist; a selection from his works with anecdotal descriptions of his famous caricatures, in two volumes." London: Chatto and Windus, 1880
Notes (object):
Bound in "The Caricature Magazine or Hudibrastic Mirror Vol. 5," the fifth volume in a set of five published under this title by Thomas Tegg. The five volumes contained 251 prints in all. This print is modeled after "A Sale of English Beauties in the East Indies" by James Gillray (published March 16, 1786).
Identifier:
18_03_000531
Barcode:
36666003263031