Caption title.
The Calves' Head Club was said to be a group of republicans who met to commemorate the execution of Charles I. Cf. BM online catalog.
Etching issued as a frontispiece to the sixth edition of Edward Ward's "The Secret History of the Calves Head Club" (6th ed. London : B. Bragge, 1707).
Inserted as item 220 into an album of collected prints, broadsides, drawings, and miscellaneous single sheet items, assembled by former owner Joseph Ames and entitled "Emblematical and satirical prints on persons and professions" (PML 145850).
Print shows seven men sitting around a table under an ax which is displayed on the wall. On the table are a dish with four calves' heads, another with a fish which has a small fish in its mouth, and a third with a boar's head. One man, dressed as a non-conformist clergyman, is praying while another holds his hat to his face, another holds his to his chest, and a third looks upwards in supplication; two men in the foreground wear fashionable coats and wigs and are seated on elegant chairs, one carries a sword. The Medusa-haired figure of Envy emerges from under the table as the Devil enters through a door behind at far right.