Push – Pin

James Gillray

Push – Pin

London, H. Humphrey April 17th. 1797

Etching

Original hand colouring

245 x 310 mm

Trimmed within platemark, overall slight browning.

£440

Three people sit at a round table playing push-pin. The Duke of Queensberry (right) leans on the table, pushing the pin. In his right hand is a double lorgnette over which he leers at his vis-à-vis, a very corpulent woman in a flowered dress who stares through spectacles at the pins. A younger woman, spinsterish and demure, watches the game with down-dropped eyes. Both wear hats. The chairs are decorated with ormolu, and on the back of Queensberry’s is his crest (without the coronet): a heart between wings. The floor is carpeted. The fat woman is identified by Wright and Evans as Mother Windsor, the bawd, see vol. vi.[ In 1830 it was suggested that she was the Duchess of Gordon. She has no resemblance to prints of the Duchess.] BM 9082