Samuel De Wilde (pseud Thaumaso Scrutiny)
(The Bank of Faith and the New Light)
London, S. Tipper June 1st 1808
Etching
180x340mm
Trimmed within platemark, repairs to old folds
£140
A satire on the eccentric and hypocritical preacher William Huntington (1745-1813), of the Providence Chapel, Titchfield Street, who called himself S. S. or ‘Sinner Saved’. After trying many professions, he became a coal-heaver, prolific author and a Calvinist. Once, having prayed for a pair of riding breeches a pair was provided by one of his congregation. The way in which this and his other material needs were met he recorded in his immensely popular book of 1784 The Poor Man’s Guardian and the Bank of Faith. In 1810 Huntington’s chapel burnt down and he managed to obtain subscriptions of £10,000 to build a bigger and better one, eventually achieving prosperity from the pew rents. The scene is the interior of the Chapel in Titchfield St. off Oxford St. Huntington is depicted preaching to a crowded, grotesquely ugly congregation from a raised hexagonal pulpit, spouting And behold there was a pair of Leather Breeches… while a large winged Devil hovers beside him waving a pair of breeches, Methodist tracts and Huntington’s book The Bank of Faith in one hand, clutching his shoulder with the other, whispering in his ear and excreting a stream of filth onto a pile of mitres and Roman Catholic regalia. BM 11080.
