Current Location: In storage
Titles
Auction Extraordinary: that is too say; an Extraordinary Auction
HB Sketches No. 58
Maker(s)
Printmaker:
Doyle, John (HB)
Publisher:
McLean, Thomas
Entities
Categories
Description
Lithograph (uncoloured) on white wove paper. Inlaid within a frame of buff wove paper (approx. height 360mm x width 515mm). A group of men surround an auction-house porter who balances a statuette of a top-hatted man wearing a frock-coat. The figure is a portrait of British landowner and politician, Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776-1839), styled Earl Temple from 1784 to 1813 and known as The Marquess of Buckingham from 1813 to 1822. The auctioneer sitting in his rostrum describes the object (printed speech contained in a speech bubble above): 'This is a very extraordinary Article! It is a specices / of Automaton, called a Marquiz & in skilful hands / may be made to do almost anything but speak, It deserves / a place in the King's _Cabinet_ of _Curiosities_! and is / worth a _Mint_ of Money - What shall I say for it'. Wellington (Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, 1769-1852; Prime Minister from 1828 to 1830), wearing top hat and cloak, looks at the statuette through an eye glass from the right foreground, Peel (Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, 1788-1850; Prime Minister, 1834–1835 and 1841–1846) standing to his right, to whom he says (printed speech inside a speech bubble above): 'I think it would be worth having P-L, / If it were but to prevent it from falling / into bad hands!'. A top-hatted figure in the left foreground (Lord Nugent, Chandos's uncle), who also holds an eye glass, exclaims (printed speech in a bubble above him): 'I must confess it is not / exactly to my taste.'. The artist's initials in monogram at lower left: 'HB'. Title printed below the border: 'AUCTION EXTRAORDINARY: that is to say; an EXTRAORDINARY AUCTION'. The publisher's details printed below but largely cut off by the edge of the paper: 'Pubd March 23rd 1830 by THOMAS McLEAN 26 Haymarket'. Handwritten in graphite at upper right: '58'. See 16074,_Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires_, Vol. XI, 1828-1832, M.D. George, published 1954, pp. 278. A number '[58]' printed in square brackets in the right-hand margin on p. 278 relates to the handwritten number at upper right, both referencing the sequence of John Doyle's Political Sketches series.
Legal notes
Given by Mrs J.E. Foster, 1895
