[Rarebooks] fa: THOMAS ROWLANDSON - THE NORWICH BULL FEAST 1813 - Re. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending MONDAY, Monday, May 5. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y5h7lppd

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

[Thomas Rowlandson:] The Norwich Bull Feast or Glory and Gluttony. London: Thomas Tegg: 1813. Inscription: "Pubd November 22 1813 by Thos Tegg No 111 Cheapside." Hand-colored etching; 308 x 225 mm (12 7/8 x 8 3/4 in). Trimmed to within border; some browning and light soiling.

Britain, in the form of "John Bull," is metaphorically eviscerated by a drunken crowd celebrating Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. "A crowded turbulent scene in the market square, Norwich. In the foreground, on trestles, is the carcass of a bull which two butchers are cutting up. Men struggle or clamour for fragments, or gnaw and fight over bones. On the right a huge cask has been broached; women fill pitchers and pails; one lies senseless. In the background a dense crowd is in procession, backed by the houses of the city; a bonfire burns unattended. The cheering crowd moves from right to I., following banners, one inscribed 'Downfall of the Tyrant', and an effigy of Napoleon raised high on a pole and surrounded by pikes" (M. Dorothy George, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum, IX, 1949). Some examples show the number 232 at upper-right corner, not present here. BM Satires 13487; Grego ii. 257.