Satirical Collection (page 7)

Cartoon, The Handwriting on the Wall. King William IV wonders if the Reform Bill has anything to do with him. The Reform Act, extending the franchise by just over 50 per cent

Cartoon, The Political Cheap-Jack -- Benjamin Disraeli, portrayed as a conman at a country fair, wooing his Buckinghamshire constituents during the General Election campaign, summer 1847. 1847

Clubland caricatures: Garrick Club celebrities
Caricatures of some of the associates of the Garrick Club including; Sir Squire Bancroft, one of the trustees Lord Burnham, Gerall du Maurier, Seymour Hicks, Sir John Hare and Sir Arthur Pinero

Cartoon, Henry Irvings return from America - The peoples idol is none the worse for his sojourn in America. Showing the famous actor-manager smoking a cigar and sitting on a pile of money. 1885

Terrific Apparition - Londons First Traffic Light 1869
Terrific Apparition - Seen during the recent fog at Westminster. A satire on Londons First Traffic Light. Invented by J P Knight, a railway signalling engineer

The fairground game of quoits or hoopla, jeu du lapin, 1815. Satirical print by showing the Duke of Wellington winning Napoleon Bonaparte as the prize

Return from the masked ball
Return from the ball: a young man flirts with several women undressing after a costume ball. During carnival you must be especially vigilant, old husbands of young wives, outdated lovers

A meeting at a masquerade ball
A meeting at a ball: A masked woman and Normandy girl flirt with a revolutionary man in bicorn and cockade, while a woman in drag as a Turkish man interrupts and a double bass player looks

Preparing for a masked ball, 1800s
Preparations for a masquerade. We no longer see harlequins and pierrots at masked balls, but instead costumes of Switzerland and Normandy

Two merveilleuses with a fortune teller
Their credulity is her only science. A fortune teller reads the cards for two credulous merveilleuses in shawls and turbans

Two pretty maids helping to dress two old crones
La toilette: Two young women help older women with baby bonnets and false bosoms - while giving knowing looks to the viewer. Women of 19 and 20 are in open war with women of a certain age (30)

Merveilleuses eating ice cream at a Paris cafe
Fashionable women or merveilleuses eating ice cream with their dogs at a cafe, circa 1800. The menu includes lemon, orange, pistachio, and creme blanche

Titus hairstyles and cache-folie wigs
Two women at the hairdressers receiving the short haircut called the Titus (after the Roman emperor), while a stylist holds up a cache-folie wig

Visitors in Pelisses
Guests at a fashionable salon, all wearing extravagent fur-lined clothes, jackets, dresses and pelisses. By the early 19th century, fur lined and trimmed cloaks, coats and jackets were all the rage

Mother playing with baby and daughter in a garden
A young mother dandles a baby, while a little girl with a doll leans against her lap. A glance at these engravings is enough to see what one can say about this subject

Mother playing with daughters in a garden
A young mother dandles a girl on her foot, while her other child drops her toys to beg for a cuddle. A glance at these engravings is enough to see what one can say about this subject

Performing dogs
A gentleman with a whip controls four dogs dancing on their hind legs dressed in the latest fashions on stage. The dog show continues to attract crowds at the Theatre Montansier in Versailles

The Incomparable Ravel, French rope dancer
The incomparable Ravel, a guitar-playing French tightrope artist from the early 19th century, with two dancers on thick ropes

New Years Gifts
A boy in dragoon uniform scrabbles for sweets under his fathers legs, while a baby plays with a puppet on his mothers lap. A black servant boy prays for a gift at left

Old woman giving a magic lantern show
The old style. An old woman showing a young dandy and merveilleuses old-fashioned scenes with a magic lantern. The images are artist without pretension, the studious young man

Shop girls preparing for bed. Wearing turbans, shawls and lowcut cotton nightshifts, four shopgirls relax before bed. Handcoloured engraving from Pierre de la Mesangeres Le Bon Genre, Paris, 1817

Cavalcade at Longchamp racetrack
Cavalcade de Longchamp. Two incroyables (fops) mounted on heavy dray horses instead of thoroughbreds at Longchamp racetrack

Shop girls dressing in the morning. Four shop girls dressing, fixing their hair in front of mirror, adjusting their stockings, playing with a cat. These little workers show such ingenious coquetry

Millinery shop workers. Women in lowcut muslin dresses trying on hats, holding a hat box, fixing feathers to a headdress and reading a notebook at the counter

Fabric shop workers. Women in muslin dresses, bonnets and shawls embroidering, sewing, cutting cloth and wrapping bolts of fabric

Three graces of the Ballet of **. Elegant ballet dancers in costume (one in turban and shawl, one with tambourine and dress decorated with flowers)

Two May-September couples dancing at a ball
Two May-September couples at a ball. The old and ugly partners have arranged the company of two young, good-looking escorts, who flirt with each other

Coryphees at a ball. Incroyables in jackets with outsize buttons and collars, long cravat, huge bicorn hat, and merveilleuses with decollete dresses and large lace collars

The problem with Capote bonnets: two womens deep-brimmed bonnets collide as they greet each other, while fashionable men watch

Fashionable couples dancing La Sauteuse
Fashionable couples dancing la Sauteuse, a pair dance popular circa 1800. The man grips the woman around the waist, while jumping from foot to foot and spinning her around

Evening party at Coblentz (between rue Taitbout and rue Neuve-Lepelletier, Paris). A group of women and children (including a black woman)

Two incroyables (fops) with cudgels hinder the promenade of two merveilleuses by pinning the tails of their dresses. One looks back coquettishly at the ridiculous dandy

Fashionable dancers performing La Trenis, a country dance section in the popular quadrille created by the French dance master Trenitz

The bored women of Longchamp racetrack. Three fashionable bored women sit among a mountain of chairs as a maid clears them away

Miss Pastel and her mother
Miss Pastel followed by her mother. A young beauty art student carries brushes, palette and canvas, while her mother in bonnet, shawl and gloves carries a heavy easel and stool

Three Parisian graces, circa 1800. Three unattractive maids wear the latest Paris fashions. Its certainly true that in fashion a servile herd of imitators abounds

Merveilleuses playing the game of blind mans buff. A blindfolded woman runs in a garden as one woman strokes her hand and another grabs her muslin dress

Merveilleuses playing the four corners game of tag
The four corners game of tag. Five merveilleuses in muslin dresses play the game of four corners, a version of tag. Illustration by Dominique Bosio

Choosing the jockey: Young woman in form-revealing dress and short martyr hairstyle seated on chaise longue pointing to a young man with a dog, while two older men and a black servant boy watch

Merveilleuses playing the game of La Main Chaude
La main chaude or Paumele. Merveilleuses in flimsy muslin dresses play the game of hot hands. One girl buries her head in anothers lap, and has to guess which friend slaps her arm

A woman writes a letter on a somno in a messy
A woman writes a letter on a somno (night table containing a chamberpot) with her feet on a pillow, while her dog chews a lace collar and a cat sleeps on her ballgown

French and English women in similar fashions
Mutual borrowing of fashions between French and English women, early 19th century. Both wear identical style bonnets, frilled dresses, shawls and spencer jackets

Miss Busk and Mr Corset at a dance party. Fashionable couple in tight corsets dancing at a ball. To appear slim, there are young men today who wear corsets like the women

The creole game or flying ring game, early 19thc century
Fashionable people playing the flying ring game or the creole game. When the Parisians adopted the game, it had to be embellished: so the ring was covered with ribbon, then rosettes, then bells

Merveilleuses playing badminton in a garden
Badminton. Merveilleuse in flimsy dresses play a game of badminton in a garden. Several have their hair in the fashionable short cut known as the martyr or victime

Three girls in mid-calf length dresses and pantalons dancing with a shawl. Handcoloured engraving from Pierre de la Mesangeres Le Bon Genre, Paris, 1817

Woman in a shop choosing a new dress, early 19th century
Woman in a shop trying to decide which dress matches her new hat. A shopgirl holds a dress trimmed with flowers, and another with gauze frill

The roller coaster at Belleville, 1812
The roller coaster at Belleville with its five cars riding a distance of 600 feet in 9 or 10 seconds. A fashionable woman in plumed bonnet, shawl and parasol watches from the terrace

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