Marrin's Bookshop

Item Description

Folio.Original hand coloured etched caricature, 9 x 13 inches cut to edge of plate. Preserved within a conservation grade cut-out mount.

Notes

Charles Williams (1797 - 1830), etcher and illustrator, was chief caricaturist for S.W.Fores, a leading British publisher between 1799 and 1815. In the title of this print, the R and E of Mare have been crossed out and Mayor written above them and is a quotation from Proverbs xx. To the right of the print, the 'Night Mayor' or Blue Ruin (Alderman Wood) creeps down a set of stairs accompanied by two fellows in top hats, they are entering a thieves' den. A speech balloon shows him commenting on the scene of revelry that he espies: the night guard, revolver in his belt, toasts a buxom lady who is about to be tipped off her chair backwards by a crouching figure who is trying to hide from the figures about to enter the room. Two men and a woman, aghast, jostle each other through a door. Movement, measured and frantic fills this print and yet two people remain unperturbed; the night guard with his back to Blue Ruin and a large immutable woman who stands solidly in the background, podgy arms crossed in front of her. Speech bubbles provide the commentary and the vivid colours of the figures make the picture come alive, against a neutral background of browns and greys.