Old Nero look'd on Burning Rome so cool, He play'd the Fiddle, but you play the Fool.
[n.d., c.1770.]
Engraving. Sheet: 170 x 115mm (6¾ x 4½"). Trimmed within plate.
A group of figures stand discussing the fire on a ship while around them figures roll and carry barrels and boxes out of danger. The three central figures are the Duke of Cumberland, Lord Mansfield and Lord Holland (Henry Fox, accounting for the vulpine face). A satire on the fire at Portsmouth Dockyard on July 27th 1770, corruption within the Admiralty and Cumberland's affair with Lady Henrietta Grosvenor (referred to here as 'Harriout'). The fiddler is George III, who was an enthusiastic violin player.
BM Satires 4404.
[Ref: 36387] £75.00
Engraving. Sheet: 170 x 115mm (6¾ x 4½"). Trimmed within plate.
A group of figures stand discussing the fire on a ship while around them figures roll and carry barrels and boxes out of danger. The three central figures are the Duke of Cumberland, Lord Mansfield and Lord Holland (Henry Fox, accounting for the vulpine face). A satire on the fire at Portsmouth Dockyard on July 27th 1770, corruption within the Admiralty and Cumberland's affair with Lady Henrietta Grosvenor (referred to here as 'Harriout'). The fiddler is George III, who was an enthusiastic violin player.
BM Satires 4404.
[Ref: 36387] £75.00