[Rarebooks] fa: WILLIAM HEATH - “ASK MY BUM” - Hand-Colored Etching 1828

[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,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[William Heath:] I say where the devil are you going to?— Ask my bum. London: T. McLean, [1828]. Inscription: "Pub. by T. McLean 26 Haymarket where political and other caricatures are daily Pub the largest collection of any House in London." Hand-colored etching; plate size: 355 x 240 mm (14 x 9 1/2 in). Trimmed to border, corners clipped, mounted on paper backing.

"Bum," in this context, is a Regency-era slang reference to the bailiff dogging this dandified gent's footsteps, and who will continue to do so until he pays off his debts. See Lexicon Balatronicum: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang (1811) — a nice copy of which we're also auctioning this week: "BUM BAILIFF. A Sheriff"s officer who arrests debtors; so-called perhaps from following his prey and being at their bums, or, as the vulgar phrase is, hard at their a—ses..."