The funeral procession of Madam Geneva, Sep. 29, 1736 [graphic].

The funeral procession of Madam Geneva, Sep. 29, 1736 [graphic].

London : Sold by J. Clark, engraver, [1736]

1 print : etching & engraving ; plate mark 269 x 368 mm

paper

Satire on gin and the Act of 1736 taxing retail sales. A funeral procession for "Madam Geneva" approaches a graveyard; the gateway is lettered "F S G" (i.e. St. Giles in the Fields). Her coffin, on which rest a glass, jug and a small keg, is draped with a pall decorated with a louse, and the letters "P P" (probably for "Parish Pall"). A half-naked beggar, known according to verses below as "Loddy," leads a long procession of mourning publicans. In the foreground, on the left, ragged street people approach a woman selling gin by the glass. On the right is a large public house with the sign of a still and a green man, lettered "Gin no more by Retale"; its interior stacked with barrels and above its open door, the hanging sign "Geneva, Brandy, Rum, Arrack, Ca..." Three men stand in front of the public house, one of whom is an artist with pallet and brushes. Another public house with a large open window stands beside the entrance to the churchyard. In the broad open area beyond are further crowds of people, two large carts upended, and in the distance of pair of stocks. (adapted from British Museum catalogue)

Title from banner at top of image.

Lettering above image: To those melancholly sufferers (by a late severe act) the distillers, this plate is most humbly inscrib'd by a lover of trade.

British Museum. Dept. of Prints and Drawings. Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum (1870-1954) (George) 2277

Great Britain -- England -- London.

ART 243- 543 (size M)

Printed price crossed out; manuscript price '6d.'

243543