Current Location: In storage
Titles
The Triumphal entrance of a PECK Loaf into Grandchester
Maker(s)
Printmaker:
Bunbury, Henry William
Designer:
attributed to
Draughtsman:
Rev. James Bearblock
(After)
Painter:
attributed to
(After)
Entities
Categories
Description
Etching on laid paper. A large man wearing a long coat, wig and bi-corn hat seated on a pony facing right. A boy balancing a large loaf of bread upon his head and holding a basket filled with objects on his right arm sits behind the other man and holds onto his coat. A label around the neck of the bottle seen in the basket reads: 'Trinity Audit'. A mongrel-type dog walks beside the pony in the right foreground. The outlines of a church and wall are seen in the right middleground and fields, houses and trees in the background. Etched onto the plate in the margin below: 'The Triumphal entrance of a PECK Loaf into Grandchester. / Publish'd May 1.st 1787. by A. Aldbery. Strand. London.'. Graphite annotations add, 'H: Bunbury sc?' below the image at lower right and within the title, 'the rev.d Sam.l' and 'fellow of Trinity College Cambridge'. Rev. Samuel Peck (died 1791) was a Senior Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. He had rooms at Trinity but lived in Grantchester at the end of the 18th century. His knowledge of English law was widely known and local people often sought his advice on various matters, probably also in the knowledge that he was happy to be paid in kind for his services. The following anecdote about Rev. Samuel Peck is told in Henry Gunning's _Reminiscences of the University, Town and County of Cambridge, from the year 1780_: 'To his clients he used to say: "A lawyer would have put you to expense. Sam Peck never takes a fee, but he loves gratitude; and he will accept a few sausages, a joint of pork, a couple of fowls, a goose or a turkey, or _any article_ that your farm produces". In the evening his boy came from Grantchester with a light cart to fetch away the provisions that had been brought in the course of the day. Whoever wishes to have a perfect idea of this extraordinary man will see in the Buttery of Trinity, a likeness of him by Bareblock, of King's. Himself, his horse, his servant and his dog, are delineated with most astonishing accuracy'. The reference to the 'likeness' featuring Peck, his servant, horse and dog would seem almost certainly to relate to the image seen in this print. 'Bareblock' refers to the Rev. James Bearblock, who graduated with a B.A. from King's in 1789 and an M.A. in 1792. He became a Fellow of King's and later a clergyman.
Legal notes
Unknown
Height 272mm (cut within platemark) x width 271mm (cut within platemark)
