Birdlime for bunglers, or, The French way of catching fools.

Image not available
Thomas Kitchin
Birdlime for bunglers, or, The French way of catching fools.
etching
image: 207 x 298 mm; plate mark: 232 x 312 mm; sheet: 265 x 344 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2593
Published: 
[London] : Sold [byThomas Kitchin] at the Star on Holborn Hill, Nov. 25 [1756]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Publication year from BM Satires.
At foot of sheet: Oh! How are the mighty fallen?
Publisher, printer, and printmaker Thomas Kitchin was located at the Star on Holborn Hill after 1755.

Summary: 

Satire on the corruption of Newcastle's government suggesting that it accepted French bribes; Newcastle stands at far left over the chest of the Treasury, holding a bag marked "8,000,000" and saying "An excellent way faith I find a fox may be caught as easily as an Old Woman"; a Frenchman pours out coins from a sack onto the floor in the middle of the room, and Hardwick, Lord Holland, and Admiral Byng fall over one another in their efforts to scoop up the money. Byng, crushed beneath Hardwicke and Fox, is treated with some sympathy. Behind them, Anson attempts to reach coins despite being tied to a table with a dial and marked "E.O"; he cries "E.O. my heart of gold tip us a handful for I have had a damn's bad run"; an escutcheon on the wall at right reads "To the Memory of Ad. Byng May 21st 1756." and a picture of the figure of Justice at center is shown covered with a spider web.

Artist page: 
Century: 
Classification: 
Department: