Love and Opportunity.
London, Printed for Rob.t Sayer, Map & Printseller, No.53 in Fleet Street. Published as the Act directs 1 Sepr 1768.
Engraving. 250 x 355mm.
A gentle satire on the folly of marriages between partners of unequal age, and on the sexual opportunism of young military officers. An elderly magistrate has dozed off beside a table holding glasses, pipes, and two bottles, one labelled “Port”, set before an empty grate. He clutches a copy of ‘Compleat Justice’, identifying him as a Justice of the Peace, while a paper protruding from his pocket reads “—him for a Trespass on…”. On a bracket table behind him are Burns’ Justice, a document marked “Stealing a Hare,” and another inscribed “Mid to Wit…”. Above his head hangs a stag’s head with antlers, an allusion to his cuckoldry. On the opposite side of the fireplace, his pretty young wife sits with an army officer who fondles her, his hat hanging on the wall behind them. The mantelpiece holds two oriental-style jars and a figure of Budai, the “laughing Buddha,” above which a gun is suspended upside down.
BM Satires 4249.
[Ref: 5396] £280.00
Engraving. 250 x 355mm.
A gentle satire on the folly of marriages between partners of unequal age, and on the sexual opportunism of young military officers. An elderly magistrate has dozed off beside a table holding glasses, pipes, and two bottles, one labelled “Port”, set before an empty grate. He clutches a copy of ‘Compleat Justice’, identifying him as a Justice of the Peace, while a paper protruding from his pocket reads “—him for a Trespass on…”. On a bracket table behind him are Burns’ Justice, a document marked “Stealing a Hare,” and another inscribed “Mid to Wit…”. Above his head hangs a stag’s head with antlers, an allusion to his cuckoldry. On the opposite side of the fireplace, his pretty young wife sits with an army officer who fondles her, his hat hanging on the wall behind them. The mantelpiece holds two oriental-style jars and a figure of Budai, the “laughing Buddha,” above which a gun is suspended upside down.
BM Satires 4249.
[Ref: 5396] £280.00