Two Penny Whist

James Gillray

Two-penny Whist

London, H. Humphrey Jan 11th 1796

Etching

Original hand-colouring

210x315mm

£780

A game at whist at a round card table. ‘Betty’ on the left holds out, with a triumphant grin, the ace of spades, with which she is about to take the seventh consecutive trick. Her mistress, Miss Humphrey, sits on her left. The two men are said to be Tholdal, a German, who turns his head in astonishment towards Betty, and Betty’s partner, Mortimer, a picture dealer and restorer. A scene in Bond Street shortly before the transfer of Mrs Humphrey’s business to St James’s Street. This print (reversed) appears in Humphrey’s shop window in Gillray’s Very Slippy-Weather, of 1808. BM8885

From the collection of Dr. C.S. Warren, Descendant of Dr. Joseph Warren of Bunker Hill fame.