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The Gamesters: P.15114-R

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

The Gamesters

Maker(s)

Printmaker: Ward, William
Publisher: Ackermann, Rudolph
Painter: Peters, Matthew William (After)

Entities

Categories

Description

After the painting by Matthew William Peters (probably painted 1785 (companion to Peters', The Fortune Teller); ?Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland). The two young card players have long been identified by an annotated impression of Ward's mezzotint in the British Museum (1876,1209.449) as the flamboyant and excessive Lord Courtenay (William, 3rd Viscount Courtenay, 1768-1835), to the left and Thomas Rowlandson, to the right. A third, older man stands behind Courtenay, purportedly assisting with his right hand as to which cards he should play, whilst behind his back, holding up three fingers to indicate what he is suggesting to Rowlandson. The spectator, meanwhile, is privy to further cheating on Rowlandson's part, as we can see that he is hiding the ace of diamonds behind his back.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Joseph Prior, 1918 (received 1919-03)

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1919-03) by Prior, Joseph

Dating

19th Century
Production date: 1802-06-01 AD 1802

Note

Mezzotint. Second state following alteration of the publication line. Artists' names in dotted letters to left: 'Painted by the Rev.d Mr. Peters. R.A.' and right: 'Engraved by W.m Ward'. Title in closed, dotted letters: 'THE GAMESTERS' and caption in dotted letters below: 'Vice whatever sex or form it may assume leadeth to destruction, - woe to the unruly youth who hath been seduced into its acquaintance. / Peters'. Dedication in dotted letters below: 'To the young Nobility of England this Plate is most humbly Inscribed by their / devoted & obed. Servant J.R. Smith'. Publication line engraved below: 'London Pub.d 1st June 1802 at R ACKERMANN'S Repository of Arts 101 Strand'. First state was published by John Raphael Smith, May 22nd 1786.

School or Style

British

Techniques used in production

Mezzotint

Identification numbers

Accession number: P.15114-R
Primary reference Number: 240142
Frankau (Ward): 128.II
Chaloner Smith: 97
Nagler (Künstler-Lexicon): 29
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Thursday 9 January 2020 Updated: Wednesday 11 January 2023 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "The Gamesters" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/240142 Accessed: 2024-11-09 02:22:35

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/240142 |title=The Gamesters |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-09 02:22:35|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-240142

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