Caption title from finished state.
Finished state signed "Gillot pinx. et Sculp.", with imprint reading "A Paris chez Vanheck"; lettered with caption title and 6 lines of verse in two columns.
1st state, before all letters.
One of a series of four prints by Gillot, known under the title "Scènes comiques du théâtre Italien"; tentatively dated by Populus 1716-1718.
Forms part of a collection of 586 etchings by and after Claude Gillot, mounted into a bound album by a former owner, with letterpress title page reading "Oeuvres de Gillot." (see PML 198162).
Library's copy trimmed to platemark.
Print shows a scene from a commedia dell'arte comedy featuring trick props and onstage pyrotechnics; Scaramouche, Mezzetino, and Polichinelle are seated around a table on three benches which have been suddenly lifted above the stage as Harlequin, at far right, touches a wand to a dish at the center of the table, igniting a small explosion which has sent the other three characters shooting upwards on sliding poles attached to the legs of the benches and emerging from the floor of the stage.