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New Roads to the Temple of Fortune

£320.00

Samuel de WildeNew Roads to the Temple of FortuneLondon, M. Jones January 1st. 1811Etching with aquatintOriginal hand colouring213 x 371 mmTraces of old folds as issued. neat marginal repair.

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Description

Samuel de Wilde

New Roads to the Temple of Fortune

London, M. Jones January 1st. 1811

Etching with aquatint

Original hand colouring

213 x 371 mm

Traces of old folds as issued. neat marginal repair.

£320

An illustration to four articles in the magazine: (1) ‘John King’, pp. 1-27, allegations of money-lending, fraudulent banking, forgery, blackmail, &c.: King (1753-1824), real name Jacob Rey, a Sephardi Jew, was educated at a Jewish orphan asylum in London, and divorced his wife to marry the Dowager Lady Lanesborough, see No. 7198. Glover and Albut were his assistants in frauds on a bank. Messrs. Dean & Co. was a fraudulent banking firm conducted by King, who issued advertisements imploring assistance in the character of ‘a lady in distress’. (2) ‘James Henry Leigh Hunt’, pp. 46-64: attacks on the politics of the ‘Reflector’ and the ‘Examiner’, Hunt’s egotism, versification, &c. The ‘Reflector’ was a quarterly started in 1810 by Hunt’s brother, four numbers only appearing. On 22 Feb. he was tried for libel for an article against military flogging, was defended by Brougham, and acquitted. Before this, two prosecutions against the ‘Examiner’ had been brought forward, but dropped: one in connexion with disclosures by Major Hogan on army promotions, see No. 11211, &c., one for a remark on George III; ‘Autob. of Leigh Hunt’, 1903, i. 226 ff. (3) ‘Anthony Daffy Swinton’, pp. 27-46: an ancestor of Swinton was a travelling tinker who became agent for a vendor of Anderson’s pills (for inducing miscarriages); he then made bogus pills; on the discovery of the fraud he went to London and made friends with Anthony Daffy, called inventor of the famous elixir (actually invented by the Rev. Thomas Daffy, d. 1680). One of the tinker’s descendants married a Miss Daffy and became proprietor of the medicine; their son, A. D. Swinton, was committed to Newgate for fraud in 1806, and (in 1811) had taken sanctuary in the Rules of the Fleet. William Brodum was a Jewish quack born in Denmark, who had been footman to Dr. Bossy (see No. 8740). He advertised medicines, notably his ‘Restorative Nervous Cordial’ which he sold with his business to Swinton. Cf. No. 11711. (4) ‘Rev. William Huntington, S.S.’, pp. 64-77, incorrectly called a Methodist; an account based on his own voluminous writings. At one time he combined preaching, cobbling, and coal-heaving. The ‘conjugal prize’ is the rich city widow, Lady Sanderson.