Uncorking Old-Sherry-

James Gillray

Uncorking Old-Sherry-

London, H. Humphrey March 10^th. 1805

Etching

Original hand colouring

355 x 255 mm

Slight staining in the text below the design

£1500

Pitt stands in the House of Commons, facing the Opposition benches; he causes a tremendous explosion by uncorking a bottle containing the bloated and scowling face of Sheridan, whose hair swirls up into the neck of the bottle. He stands like a waiter with a napkin, marked with a crown and ‘GR’, under his left. arm; the bottle is between his bent knees, and in his right. hand is a corkscrew, held directly over the bottle. Similar bottles, corked and labelled, stand on the Opposition benches. In the foreground, facing Pitt, are bottles containing the heads of (l. to r.) Tierney, labelled ‘a Glass of All-Sorts’, Fox, labelled ‘True French Wine’ [see BMSat 9735, &c], Windham, labelled ‘Brandy and Water’, and in profile to the left., Grey, labelled ‘Goosberry Wine’. All look up at Pitt with anxious melancholy. Rows of bottles recede in perspective on the back benches; only three contain heads: a melancholy profile (see BMSat 10372) of Burdett, labelled ‘Brentford Ale’ [the polling place for Middlesex], Erskine, labelled ‘Spruce Beer’ [frothy explosive stuff], and behind these two a partly concealed profile labelled ‘Elder Wine’. Next Burdett is a bottle of ‘Whitbreads Small-Beer’. Another bottle is labelled ‘Mum’. On the ground behind Pitt lies an open bottle of ‘Medicinal Wine’ spilling its contents, and containing the head of Sidmouth (Addington, see BMSat 9849), with closed eyes suggesting death rather than sleep. Behind, on the extreme left., is part of the Speaker’s chair, only a portion of wig being visible.
The violent explosion spreads across the upper part of the design; it contains the words ‘Bouncings’, ‘Growlings’, ‘Fibs! Fibs! Fibs’, ‘Abuse’, ‘Abuse’, ‘Damn’d Fibs’, ‘Invectives’, ‘Old Puns’, ‘Groans of Disappointment’, ‘Stolen Jests’, ‘Invectives’, ‘lame Puns’, ‘Invectives’, ‘Loyal Boastings’, ‘Dramatic Ravings’, ‘Low Scurrilities’, ‘Stale Jokes’, ‘Fibs, Fibs, Fibs! Egotism’. [Commas have been added.] Below the design:
” – the honble Gentm tho’ he does not very often address the House, yet when he does, he always thinks proper to pay off all arrears, & like \ “a Bottle just uncork’d bursts all at once, into an explosion of Froth & Air; – then, whatever might for a length of time lie \ “lurking & corked up in his mind, whatever he thinks of himself or hears in conversation, – whatever he takes many \ “days or weeks to sleep upon, the whole common-place book of the interval is sure to burst out at once, stored with \ “Studied-Jokes, Sarcasms, arguments, invectives, & every thing else, which his mind or memory are capable of embracing \ “whether they have any relation or not to the Subject under discussion – See Mr P-tts speech on ye Genl Defence Bill. March 6th 1805.’

BM 10375