House-breaking before sun-set / PR ft.

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House-breaking before sun-set / PR ft.
etching & drypoint
image: 290 x 223 mm; plate mark: 327 x 250 mm; sheet: 309 x 223 mm
Peel 3367
Published: 
[London] : Published Jany. 6t 1789 by R. Butters, 79 Fleet Stt., [1789]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Title from item.
Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

Under a sinking sun in which is drawn a crown, with the words "Obscured, not lost", a masked figure with a crow-bar labelled "Begum Sophistry" and the Prince Regent with a broken axe labelled "Presumptive Rights" try to break down the door of the Treasury, while Edmund Burke picks the lock, labelled "G R", with keys labelled "Tropes"; behind them stands a man in black with a lantern labelled "Loyalty", a belt labelled "Truth" and a clapper labelled "Vox Populi"; from the window of the Treasury, Pitt attacks the house-breakers with a blunderbuss labelled "Constitution". Cf. British Museum online catalogue.

Century: 
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