IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 225244 accession number: P.14655-R DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Wednesday 5 September 2018 updated: Tuesday 26 March 2024 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: Lithograph (uncoloured) on white wove paper. Inlaid within a frame of buff wove paper (approx. height 360mm x width 515mm). An interior scene around a cloth-covered table with Wellington (Duke of Wellington; Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, 1769-1852; Prime Minister from 1828 to 1830) seated at the left, Peel (Sir Robert Peel; Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, 1788-1850; Prime Minister, 1834–1835 and 1841–1846) seated beside him. Wellington holds a paper taken from an open displatch box. The actor, John Liston (1776-1846) in the character of Paul Pry stands before the two men offering his hat and holding an umbrella under his left arm. Paul Pry was characterised as a meddlesome and mischievous fellow consumed with curiosity and unable to mind his own business and was played by Liston in the three-act farce of the same name which premiered at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 13 September 1825. Text contained inside a (faint) speech bubble: 'I have just dropped in to ask / you a little question, I want to know - / if you are really desirous to releive [sic] / the people by retrenchment and / economy - why you don't begin / by reducing your own / Salaries?'. Wellington answers in text contained inside a speech bubble (faint): 'Your question Sir, is a very / impertinent question! / and I take it to be / exceedingly personal!'. Peel responds with text inside a (faint) speech bubble: 'What a very / disagreeable question!'. The title is printed below the border: 'A VERY IM['IM' struck through]PERTINENT QUESTION'. The publisher's details printed below, the lower part of the text cropped by the edge of the paper: 'Published by Thomas McLean 26 Haymarket, 3rd March 1830'. Handwritten in graphite at upper right: '54'. See 16065,_Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires_, Vol. XI, 1828-1832, M.D. George, published 1954, pp. 273-4. A number '[54]' printed in square brackets in the right-hand margin on p. 273 relates to the handwritten number at upper right, both referencing the sequence of John Doyle's Political Sketches series. title: satirical print LICENSING --------- text license status: CC0 image license status: CC-BY-NC-SA OWNERSHIP --------- instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints creditline: Given by Mrs J.E. Foster, 1895 STABLE URL ---------- url: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/225244 TECHNIQUES ---------- lithography CATEGORIES ------ category: print DATING ------ creation date: 1830 - 1830 creation date earliest: 1830 creation date latest: 1830 culture: 19th Century CREATORS -------- maker: Doyle, John (HB) maker: McLean, Thomas