Can you forbear laughing [graphic].

Published/Created:
London
Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett, No. 53 Fleet Street
as the act directs 14 June 1776
Physical Description:
1 print : mezzotint, hand-colored ; plate mark 354 x 256 mm, on sheet 389 x 289 mm.
Notes:
Title from caption below image.
Printmaker identified as Philip Dawe by Dorothy George. See British Museum catalogue.
Andrew Edmunds; November 2012.
Abstract:
"A lady stands at her dressing-table (right), her hair in an enormous pyramid decorated with feathers torn from a peacock, an ostrich and a cock. A young girl wearing a hat holds the peacock by a wing; another wearing a cap tugs hard at one of its tail feathers (which are very unlike peacock's feathers). An ostrich (left), which has lost most of its tail feathers, is about to pluck out those which ornament the lady's hair. A cock stands in the foreground (right), having lost almost all its tail feathers, many of which lie on the floor. A black servant wearing a turban stands on his mistress's right, handing feathers from a number which he holds in his left hand. The lady, who faces three-quarter to the right, is elaborately dressed in the fashion of the day. Her pyramid of hair is decorated with lappets of lace and festoons of jewels as well as with feathers. She wears large earrings, a necklace with a cross, her bodice is cut very low, and her elbow sleeves have lace ruffles. A pannelled wall forms the background."--British Museum online catalog.
Associated Names:
Dawe, Philip [Printmaker]
Robert Sayer and John Bennett (Firm) [Publisher]
Topics:
Chickens
Clothing & dress -- England -- 1770-1780
Fashion -- Great Britain -- 18th century
Feathers
Hairdressing
Hairstyles
Ostriches
Peacocks
Servants
Language:
English
Genre:
Mezzotints -- England -- London -- 1776
Satires (Visual works) -- England -- 1776
Format:
Image
Content Type:
Prints & Photographs
Rights:
These images are provided for study purposes only. For publication or other use of images from the Library's collection, please contact the Lewis Walpole Library at walpole@yale.edu. Further details on the Library's photoduplication policy are available at http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/html/research/rights_reproductions.html
Call Number:
776.06.14.01+
Orbis Record:
11119218
Yale Collection:
Lewis Walpole Library
Digital Collection:
Lewis Walpole Library
Local Record Number:
lwlpr28228
Volume/Enumeration:
Digital version
OID:
11001102
PID:
digcoll:976127