The Whore's Last Shift

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James Gillray
1756-1815
The Whore's Last Shift
[London] : Publish'd Feby 9th 1779, by WHumphrey, [1779]
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.238
Published: 
[London] : Publish'd Feby. 9th. 1779, by W.Humphrey, [1779]
Provenance: 
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Notes: 

By James Gillray.

Summary: 

Print shows a woman standing in a sordid room. She is naked except for her shoes and ragged stockings, and is washing a garment, her 'last shift', in a broken chamber-pot supported on a broken chair. Another garment is in a broken basin on the floor; her hat and outer-garments also lie on the floor. Beside them are two pill-boxes and a paper inscribed "Leakes famous Pills". Her hair is elaborately dressed in a pyramid, decorated with feathers, flowers, and ribbons. A casement window is open, showing the roof of a neighbouring house; on the sill a cat yowls. A broadside ballad is pinned to the window recess: "The comforts of Single Life. An Old Song," and on the wall is a torn print, "Ariadne Forsaken".

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