Political Balances_Unexpected Inspection_or A Good old Master takeing a peep into the state of things himself.204.
[Charles Williams.]
by T. Tegg 111 Cheapside [n.d.]
Hand-coloured etching, watermark 1818. Plate 248 x 350mm (9¾ x 13¾"). Small margins.
A pair of scales hangs in a landscape, suspended from a hook in a block against the upper margin inscribed 'Constitution', the central pivot inscribed ('Equilibrium'). The left scale is weighted only by a document headed 'Acts for the more effectually Sarving' [sic], on the right scale, inscribed 'Prices of Provisions.', are a leg of mutton, a frothing tankard, and a loaf; it is much outweighed by the other, inscribed 'Old England', which descends below the level of the ground into a rocky pit or 'Abyss of Corruption'. On the ground below the right scale lies a starving and half-naked peasant who raises his arm to touch it. A well-dressed man, his hands on his knees, stoops in profile to the left over the descending scale. He is watched by George III who leans from a crenelated tower inscribed 'Windsor', on the extreme left, with his spy-glass to his eye. He wears a round hat topped by a small crown, and shouts: "Heigh! Heigh! Fellow! pull away those d—d heavy Corn Laws, and Butter and Cheese Laws; let the prices find the level & come within the reach of my distress'd people; I say pull them of directly Fellow, d'ont you see Old England is sunk almost out of sight, you thought I could not see did you Fellow Heigh! Heigh!" A face within a sun dipping behind the skyline sheds tears. A scale of (corn) prices explains the tilt of the scales by lines intersecting at the pivot, representing the tilt of the beam of the scales, downwards or upwards; the right end is inscribed with the price, the opposite end by a word expressing its result in social conditions.
BM Satires 13497 (addenda).
[Ref: 52294] £230.00
by T. Tegg 111 Cheapside [n.d.]
Hand-coloured etching, watermark 1818. Plate 248 x 350mm (9¾ x 13¾"). Small margins.
A pair of scales hangs in a landscape, suspended from a hook in a block against the upper margin inscribed 'Constitution', the central pivot inscribed ('Equilibrium'). The left scale is weighted only by a document headed 'Acts for the more effectually Sarving' [sic], on the right scale, inscribed 'Prices of Provisions.', are a leg of mutton, a frothing tankard, and a loaf; it is much outweighed by the other, inscribed 'Old England', which descends below the level of the ground into a rocky pit or 'Abyss of Corruption'. On the ground below the right scale lies a starving and half-naked peasant who raises his arm to touch it. A well-dressed man, his hands on his knees, stoops in profile to the left over the descending scale. He is watched by George III who leans from a crenelated tower inscribed 'Windsor', on the extreme left, with his spy-glass to his eye. He wears a round hat topped by a small crown, and shouts: "Heigh! Heigh! Fellow! pull away those d—d heavy Corn Laws, and Butter and Cheese Laws; let the prices find the level & come within the reach of my distress'd people; I say pull them of directly Fellow, d'ont you see Old England is sunk almost out of sight, you thought I could not see did you Fellow Heigh! Heigh!" A face within a sun dipping behind the skyline sheds tears. A scale of (corn) prices explains the tilt of the scales by lines intersecting at the pivot, representing the tilt of the beam of the scales, downwards or upwards; the right end is inscribed with the price, the opposite end by a word expressing its result in social conditions.
BM Satires 13497 (addenda).
[Ref: 52294] £230.00