[Rarebooks] fa: CHARLES WILLIAMS - SMITHFIELD PARLIAMENT - UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE & HENRY HUNT 1819

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, April 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/pz2yh7n

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

[Charles Williams:] The Smithfield Parliament. i e Universal Suffrage — the New Speaker addressing the Members. London: Thomas Tegg, 1819. Hand-colored etching, 13 13/4 x 9 1/2 in. Trimmed and mounted on paper backing; stains to the lower margin and upper-right corner; mild toning and dimpling. Imprint at lower-left: "Pubd July 1819 by T. Tegg 111 Cheapside London."

A reactionary satire of Henry "Orator" Hunt and the reform movement. From the British Museum's Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires (no. 13252): "A scene in Smithfield Market. Henry Hunt, with the head of an ass, addresses cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs, all on their hind-legs, from a large open cart. He stands in front of a large armchair placed across the end of the cart, his arms raised oratorically, saying, 'I shall be ambitious indeed if I thought my Bray could be heard by the immense and respectable multitude I have the Honour to address—' At his right hand flies a large red flag inscribed 'Universal Suffrage', at his left is a corresponding blue one, inscribed 'Peace And Goodw[ill]'… Beside each flag-staff is a smaller pole with a notice: 'Order'. The animals fill the square; from their heads float the words: 'Hear Hear'; 'Hear! Hear!'; 'Bravo'; 'Bravo! Bravo!'; 'Excellent!' The windows of the adjacent houses are filled with tiny spectators; others watch from the roofs… On 21 July Hunt presided at a Reformers' meeting at Smithfield; disturbances were expected, but did not occur." 

The same could not be said of a similar rally held a month later in Manchester, scene of the famous "Peterloo Massacre."