Holdings Information

Bibliographic Record Display

• Author/Creator:Gillray, James, 1756-1815, printmaker.
  
• Title:Melpomene [graphic].
  
• Publication:[London] : Pubd. Decr. 6th, 1784, by J. Ridgeway, No. 196 Piccadilly, London, [6 December 1784]
  
• Physical Description:1 print : aquatint with etching and stipple engraving ; oval image 33 x 24.3 cm, on sheet 36 x 26 cm
  

• Yale Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:BEINECKE (Non-Circulating)
    Request for Use in the Beinecke Reading Room
    
    
  • Call Number: Auchincloss Gillray v. 12
    
  • Status:No information available 
  • Notes:1 print : etching, aquatint & stipple engraving on laid paper ; oval image 33.1 x 24.4 cm, on plate 35.5 x 25.1 cm, on sheet 35.8 x 25.4 cm.
    Mounted on leaf 10 of volume 12 of 12.
    
  • Provenance:From a collection in twelve volumes probably compiled by Francis Harvey and sold at auction, Sotheby, London, June 1900. Bequest of Hugh Dudley Auchincloss to Yale University Library, 1981. Bound by Riviere & Son in three-quarters red morocco with gold tooling and gold lettering on spine.
    
  •   View a digital version in the Beinecke Library's Digital Images Online database
    

  • Location:LEWIS WALPOLE LIBRARY, Prints and Drawings (Non-Circ)
    Request for Use in the Lewis Walpole Library
    
    
  • Call Number: 784.12.06.01+
    
  • Status:Not Checked Out
    
  • Notes:Counter watermark.
    
  • Provenance:Old Print Shop; March 1961; Acquisition no.: 961-3-1-43.
    
  •   Digital version
    

   
• Medium:laid paper.
  
• Local Notes:Temporary local subject terms: Mythology -- Melpomene (Mythological character) -- Purses of money -- Falling figure of Fame -- Temple of Fame -- Symbols: daggers -- Symbols: goblets -- Theater stage.
  
• Notes:Title engraved below image.
  Printmaker from British Museum catalogue.
  Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
  
• Summary:"Mrs. Siddons stands on the stage, her head turned in profile to the left, her left hand outstretched to take a heavy purse which hangs on a pitchfork emerging from clouds. To take it she has dropped a dagger which falls to the ground. In her left hand is a cup whose contents she is pouring on the ground. The panniers of her dress fly backwards revealing two bulging pockets, one full of guineas, the other of notes or cheques inscribed '£1000, £300', &c. She is saying: "Famish'd & spent relieving others woe, Your poor devoted Suppliant only begs, This morsel for to buy a bit of Bread." The black clouds of smoke from which the pitchfork projects rise in a pillar of cloud from the pit of the theatre where flames are indicated, from which come the words 'Encore! Encore!' In the background a temple of Fame on a mountain-top is collapsing, the pillars shattered; the figure of Fame falls backward, dropping his trumpet."--British Museum online catalogue.
  
• Format:Visual Material
• References:Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 6, no. 6712
  Wright, T. Works of James Gillray, the caricaturist, page 68
  
• Subjects:Siddons, Sarah, 1755-1831--Caricatures and cartoons.
  Purses.
  Coins.
  Pitchforks.
  Temples.
  Drinking vessels.
  Daggers & swords.
  
• Subjects (Local Yale):Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership.
  Harvey, Francis--Ownership.
  Riviere & Son--Binding.
  
• Genre/Form:Satires (Visual works)--England--1784.
  Aquatints--England--London--1784.
  Stipple engravings--England--London--1784.