A meeting of a Calves-Head Club for Whig gentlemen who celebrate the execution of King Charles I. Engraving, 1734.
- Date:
- [1734]
- Reference:
- 575561i
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Description
Seven men around a table, on which is a roasted calf's head. One man holds an axe (referring to the execution of King Charles I). Another is standing to propose a toast. An eighth man puts his head out of the window where smoke from a fire lit by their opponents is swirling
Publication/Creation
[London (the White Horse opposite the Northgate in St Pauls churchyard)] : [George Foster], [1734]
Physical description
1 print : engraving ; sheet 23.5 x 18.9 cm
Lettering
The true effigies of the [club] of [calf]'s [head]s met on the 30th. of January 1734 at the Golden Eagle in Suffolk Street in the County of Middlesex. The healths. To the pious memory of Oliver Cromwell. Dam-on [Damnation] to the race of the Stuarts. To the glorious year 1648. To the man in ye mask &c &c. Strange times, when noble peers secure from riot ... and made a calves head feast for worms & devils.
Clandestine words in the lettering are represented by rebuses: a trefoil for 'Club' and a calf and a man's head for 'Calf's Head'. The lettering contains republican and anti-Jacobite sentiments. 30 January was the anniversary of the execution of King Charles I. The lettering describes attempts to sabotage the club, referring to "Clare Market mobsters" and "St James's lobsters"
Edition
[State without imprint].
References note
British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol III, London 1978, number 2142
Reference
Wellcome Collection 575561i
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Location Status Access Closed stores