A Barbers Shop in Assize Time - from a Picture painted by H. W. Bunbury Esq. The Last Work of the late James Gillray - Now First published May 15th 1818 by G. Humphrey nephew and successor to the late Mrs H. Humphrey (first published January 9th 1811), First edition of the engraving.
London: Hannah, Humphrey, 1718. Handcoloured engraving. 49 x 62cm. sheet size........ Marginal tears/....
Peel 2278; Morgan Library Record ID:185903: ...........Print shows the interior of a country barbershop, where the barber, his assistant, and a boy, are engaged in shaving and wig-dressing. An elderly rustic sits full-face and well-lathered in an arm-chair in the centre of the shop, while a lean and tattered barber holds the bowl. A stout farmer in top-boots (left) with a stubbly face dubiously contemplates a wig, which he holds on a tall wig-block.///// On the right a fat barber painfully shaves an old man, while a younger customer stanches a cut over a basin. A young boy in front of them holds two elaborately curled legal wigs. A long judge's wig, uncurled, hangs from a wig-block. Behind (left) a prim, elderly man in a newly dressed wig adjusts his neck-cloth at a small mirror; a coachman in back view puts on his tightly curled wig. .........There are also two dogs, two cats, a magpie taking part of a wig from a box on the floor, and another bird in a cage. Above the door (right) are fishing-rods and a creel. On the wall are four prints: a naval battle (framed); a view of the "County Gaol"; an execution scene; and a skeleton fiddling to exulting demons. There is also "A Calendar of the Prisoners to be Tried. . . ".........The room is ramshackle with a casement window, bricks showing through the plaster. From the roof hang a ham and a bundle of turnips and carrots....... Cf. BM Satires.
....From the collection of Frederic Gale Ruffner, Jr., the founder of Gale Research, Detroit. Item #16-6519
Price: $950.00