The transparency

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George Cruikshank
1792-1878
The transparency
wood engraving
image: 110 x 185 mm ; sheet: 130 x 190 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2048
Published: 
[London] : [William Hone], [1821]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Detached from Hone, William. The political showman -- at home! Exhibiting his cabinet of curiosities and creatures -- all alive! London: William Hone, 1821.

Summary: 

Liberty stands beside a printing-press on which she rests a bust-portrait of Queen Caroline, framed in laurel; in her left hand is the staff of a cap of 'Liberty', also decorated with laurel. She tramples on broken fetters. She is the centre of rays which dispel grotesque creatures with the faces of various royal officials, together with the head of the Duke of York and the jack-booted legs of King George IV which project from water or mire and are encircled by a ribbon: 'Honi Soit.' Lettered below: "The Transparency, of which this is a copy, was exhibited by William Hone, during the Illumination commenced on the 11th and ending of the 15th November 1820, is in celebration of the victory obtained by The Press for the Liberties of the People, which had been assailed in the Person of The Queen: the words 'Triumph of the Press' being displayed in variegated lamps as a motto above it. On the 29th, when The Queen went to St Paul's, it was again exhibited, with Lord Bacon's immortal words: 'Knowledge is Power,' displayed in like manner. -- The Transparency was painted by Mr. George Cruikshank."

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