Master Billy's procession to Grocers Hall

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Thomas Rowlandson
1756-1827
Master Billy's procession to Grocers Hall
etching
image: 212 x 339 mm; plate mark: 248 x 350 mm; sheet: 234 x 350 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2463
Published: 
[London] : Pub. March 8th by W. Humphrey No. 227 Strand, 1784.
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Printmaker from British Museum online catalog.
Title from item.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

A large and animated procession approaches the Grocers' Hall on the left, led by musicians and Wilkes who tosses coins to the crowd. In the first of the three coaches, shown as a child's or an invalid's chair, sits Sir Watkin Lewes, alderman and M.P. for the City, in the central one rides Pitt, behind him Sir Barnard Turner, alderman and Sheriff. The windows of the buildings are filled with spectators. On the right, above the vitrine to "Neat Wines" shop, hangs a large portrait of Lord Chatham. A burlesque rendition of the procession that took place on February 28.

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