A reissue of a print originally published by G. Humphrey, Feb 8, 1819, and included in Thomas McLean's 1835 "Cruikshankiana : an assemblage of the most celebrated works of George Cruikshank ...".
McLean's imprint, which reads "Aug 1st, 1835" in other recorded copies of his reissue of Cruikshank's etching, shows visible evidence of having been effaced and altered here to read "1819", probably sometime after printing.
Library's copy trimmed with loss of plate mark.
Modern military dandies of 1819
Print shows officers in uniform and others (right) inspecting figures in armour standing under Gothic alcoves in Carlton House (left). These have small waists and bulging breasts, like officers of 1818-19, but are taller and more stalwart than their visitors. They have helmets with heraldic plumes; one with open visor has a life-like face with moustache. A Life Guards officer and a Lancer officer walk arm-in-arm, both wearing elaborate helmets. Of two others, one short and very obese Guards officer wearing a monstrous bearskin is talking to a lady who confronts him with a 'Catalogue of the Armour', and whose bonnet completely hides her face. He wears the Peninsular medal, and, like the other two, the Waterloo medal. Another lady is with a dandy on the extreme left; both ladies wear pelisses reaching to their feet.