(Isaac Robert Cruikshank)
A frolic at the melon shop in Piccadilly
London, G Humphrey June 1826
Etching
Original hand colouring
240 x 340 mm
Trimmed to image
£160
Scene in the garden of Mrs. Coutts’s house in Stratton Street, beside a fountain. She threatens with a horse-whip a terrified dandy, who kneels at her feet, hat and cane beside him, extending clasped hands. Behind them servants stand in a row, watching, while a Bow Street officer stands on guard. The victim says, his hair rising in terror, Oh! my dearest Madam have mercy on me this once and I’ll never intrude again— Oh! dear! Oh! dear I never expected such a cool and painfull reception as this from you. She exclaims, holding up a letter to Mrs C——, How dare you pester me with so many Love Letters? I’ll have you horse whipped and ducked, to cure your passion, presumptious creature. A groom says to a footman who holds a coil of rope: Blow my Wig! Joseph you’ll loose the reward of twenty-one pounds for ducking the fellow. Joseph answers: Ah! Misses is so tender-hearted and charitable. Other servants express their desire to inflict punishment, or otherwise approve their mistress. The Bow Street officer says: I am a red-herring if she is not game to the backbone. She wears evening dress, a turban with paradise-plumes, and long gloves, and has risen from an arm-chair. BM 15160
