| Method | Etching with hand colouring |
| Artist | James Gillray |
| Published | Js. Gillray inv & fect. [Pubd. Jany. 19th 1803 by J. Gillray 27. St. James's Street.] |
| Dimensions | Image 245 x 330 mm, Sheet 250 x 350 mm |
| Notes |
A satire in response to rumours that Tierney, Sheridan, and Grey were keen for positions in Addington's ministry. Addington, the Prime Minister, and Lord Hawkesbury the Foreign Secretary, have gone out by night to engage in some bat catching, with the darkened door of their 'Granary' representing the Treasury. Addington, crouched low over a sack of gold coins labelled 'Sterling British Corn,' holds in one hand a cocked hat decorated with the tricolor filled with papers of sinecures, annuities, pensions, and posts, and in the other a bright lantern with which he attracts and blinds his quarry. Hawkesbury looms above with a large net, ready to bag the hapless bats as they rush towards the bait. The three bats have the heads of the three men, Tierney foremost, Grey behind, and Sheridan below. The method employed by the Ministers is described by Gillray in the inscription space, drawing upon the work of the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon: 'Bat-Catching, (says Buffon) does not require much art, for, flying always in the Night, they are easily attracted by a Dark Lanthorn, & being always hungry, may be easily caught, by a few Cheese Parings, or Candle Ends;_they are so rapacious, that if they once get into the Granary, they never cease devouring, while there is any thing left."_vide, Buffon's Nat: His. Article, Birds of Night_' James Gillray (c.1756-1815) was a British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires. Born in Chelsea, Gillray studied letter-engraving, and was later admitted to the Royal Academy where he was influenced by the work of Hogarth. His caricature L'Assemblée Nationale (1804) gained huge notoriety when the Prince of Wales paid a large sum of money to have it suppressed and its plate destroyed. Gillray lived with his publisher and print-seller Miss (often called Mrs) Humphrey during the entire period of his fame. Twopenny Whist, a depiction of four individuals playing cards, is widely believed to feature Miss Humphrey as an ageing lady with eyeglasses and a bonnet. One of Gillray's later prints, Very Slippy-Weather, shows Miss Humphrey's shop in St. James's Street in the background. In the shop window a number of Gillray's previously published prints, such as Tiddy-Doll the Great French Gingerbread Maker [...] a satire on Napoleon's king-making proclivities, are shown in the shop window. His last work Interior of a Barber's Shop in Assize Time, from a design by Bunbury, was published in 1811. While he was engaged on it he became mad, although he had occasional intervals of sanity. Gillray died on 1 June 1815, and was buried in St James's churchyard, Piccadilly. BM Satires 9964 Condition:Good impression, trimmed within platemark, with loss of top publication line, and remargined with old album sheet. Inscription in crayon to verso '8/15/46 Property of A.K.Darling-McNab, Box 436 Gloucester Massachusetts U.S.A.' |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £1,200.00 |
| Stock ID | 52277 |