Presentation of the Mahometan credentials, or, The final resource of French atheists / Js. Gy. desn. et fect.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
Presentation of the Mahometan credentials, or, The final resource of French atheists / Js. Gy. desn. et fect.
engraving
image: 30.8 x 35.6 cm; sheet: 30.8 x 36.4 cm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2832
Published: 
[London] : H. Humphrey, 1793.
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Trimmed to within plate mark.

Summary: 

The King and Queen, seated on the throne (left), receive with astonished horror a deputation from Turkey. A Turk stands proffering a large rolled document with pendent seals on which are crescents: 'Powers for a new Connexion between the Port, England & France'. Beside him (left) another Turk grovels on the ground. Fox and Sheridan, kneeling with crouching humility, hold up the long cloak of the Turkish emissary; their bonnets-rouges are decorated with crescents. Behind them Priestley bows low (right). Turks with spears and banners stand behind him. To a spear topped with a crescent is attached a tricolour flag inscribed 'Vive la Republique'. Pitt, a naked mannikin, one foot on the royal dais, clutches the King's knee in terror: a chain from his wrist is attached to a royal crown lying on the ground. Behind him, and beside the throne, stands Dundas in Highland dress, tall and impassive, holding a pike. The King and Queen are much caricatured: the King stares, biting his fingers and clutching the Queen; she puts her fan before her face but looks through its sticks at the Turks. The three elder princesses (not caricatured) peep from behind the throne on the extreme left.

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