Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2 by Joseph Grego

Shop in Assize Time_. The great caricaturist carried this plate, _the last work on copper by the hand of Gillray_, as notified upon the print, so far as his intermittent returns of reason would allow him. As Gillray died June 1, 1815, when the plate was evidently unfinished, this is probably one of the caricaturist's coppers which, as we have already related, were handed to George Cruikshank, another departed worthy, to complete. The unexpected death of the veteran has prevented the writer verifying this circumstance, although it is probably one of the plates--probably the most important as to size--which Cruikshank held in recollection when he informed the writer he considered that the most flattering testimonial which had been paid him in his long life was being selected, while a young man, to complete the engravings Gillray had left unfinished under the painful circumstances of his mental aberration, as already detailed. (See _The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist, with the Story of his Life and Times_, page 19, Introduction; and, further, the reduced engraving, from this plate (1811), page 370, the _Works_). 1811 (?). _Modern Antiques._--The cabinet of an antiquarian, richly filled with supposititious relics of the past. On a shelf is a row of Etruscan vases; bacchic masks and terminal gods are ranged on the walls; the chief features of the collection are a gathering of Egyptian deities and some magnificent sarcophagi. The satire, in some degree, seems to hint at Sir William Hamilton (then deceased) and the fair Emma. An old antiquary, decrepit and bent, is peering at the shapely proportions of an Egyptian figure bearing a close resemblance to life. The chief incident of the picture is centred in a mummy's coffin, tenanted for the time, like a sentry-box, by a gallant young officer, who is embraced, behind the lid of his temporary resting-place, by a lady, who, like all the beauties designed by the artist, is represented of fine proportions and somewhat free graces. The _inamorata_ has thrown down a work which she has evidently studied to some purpose, _Loves of the Gods--embellished with cuts_, and she is taking the opportunity to make a practical application of her readings.