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Lot 75

GILLRAY (JAMES)
Etched caricature by James Gillray of Admiral Richard Earl Howe entitled 'A French Hail Storm, -- or – Neptune loosing sight of the Brest Fleet', H. Humphrey, 18 Old Bond Street, 10 December 1793

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,250 inc. premium

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GILLRAY (JAMES)

Etched caricature by James Gillray of Admiral Richard Earl Howe entitled 'A French Hail Storm, -- or – Neptune loosing sight of the Brest Fleet', showing the Admiral standing on a conch towed by two dolphins, his hand covering his eyes, as putti blow a shower of gold coins forcing him back into the harbour of Torbay, with the fleet standing off Brest in the background, fine strong impression, on wove paper, set in a paper mount, 310 x 355mm., H. Humphrey, 18 Old Bond Street, 10 December 1793

Footnotes

Issued when Howe was blockading the French fleet in Brest, his cautious nature prompting him to adopt a policy of 'open blockade', with only frigates left to watch the French port while the main fleet withdrew to Torbay or Spithead. Our print has him exclaim: 'Zounds, these damn'd hail stones hinder one from doing ones duty! – I cannot see out of my Eyes for them! – Ah! it was just such another cursed peppering as this, that I fell inn with, on the coast of America in the last War; - what a deuce of a thing it is, that whenever I'm just going to play the Devil, I am hinder'd by these confounded French storms, or eke, loose my way in a Fog'.

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