Doctor Phlogiston, the priestley politician or the political priest [print / Annabal Scratch fecit.

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Doctor Phlogiston, the priestley politician or the political priest [print / Annabal Scratch fecit.
etching
image: 141 x 90 mm; plate mark: 163 x 106 mm; sheet: 184 x 112 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 1709
Published: 
[London] : Published as the act directs by W. Locke, July 1 1791.
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Possibly executed by Samuel Collings, who is believed to have employed the pseudonym Annibal Scratch for some of his prints.
At head of image: Political Portraiture No. 6.
Etched plate issued as an illustration in the Attic Miscellany, ii. 369.
Caption title followed by two lines of verse at right, beginning, "Neither born nor begotten ..."

Summary: 

Print shows Priestley walking right to left, diagonally away from the spectator; his face, turned in profile to the left, has a sinister smile. He holds out, as firebrands, two burning papers: 'Political Sermon' and 'Essay on Government'. From his pockets other papers project inscribed: 'Revolution Toasts, Essays on Matlin [sic] Spirit' and 'Gunpowder'. He tramples on books and papers, including an open book: 'Bible explained away.' Cf. BM Satires.

Classification: 
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