Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The Chamber of Commerce, or L'assemblée des Not-ables Anglois / JS f.

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James Sayers
1748-1823

The Chamber of Commerce, or L'assemblée des Not-ables Anglois / JS f.

[London] : Publ'd the 14th Febry., 1787 by Thos. Cornell, Bruton Street, [1787]
etching
image: 225 x 273 mm; plate mark: 232 x 287 mm; sheet: 242 x 298 mm
Peel 1616
Notes
Title etched in lower center of image.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

Print shows a number of men with asses' heads sitting around a table signing a petition. They are upon a platform in a ramshackle room; a ladder rests against its left corner; on the ladder appear the head and shoulders of Fox in back view; he holds strings attached to the noses of the asses. The ass seated at the head of the table (left) hands down to him a "Petition to the House of Commons for Delay [signed] Ign[or]amus". An ass holds a long document, the "Commercial Treaty with France", which falls across the table on to the ground; on his right shoulder an ass rests his head; another on the left sleeps with his head resting on a pile of books on the table. A spectacled ass writes busily; next him, at the end of the table (right), an ass leans back asleep. The nose of a braying ass appears through a door on the extreme right. Behind the table an ass places a notice on the wall: Chamber of Commerce at a Meeting held the 10th of February Resolved. This partly covers another bill: Chamber [of] Commerce at a Meeting 9th Decr 1786 Resolv[ed]. On a shelf (left) a figure of Mercury with a wooden leg dances, flourishing a caduceus; the right hand is broken off; behind it part of a vase is visible inscribed "Wedgwood". Figure and vase are on a pedestal inscribed "Ex Quovis Ligno non fit Mercurius". Cf. George.

Associated names
Cornell, Thos., active 1780-1792, publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850 former owner.
Artist
Classification
Department