Monstrous craws, at a new coalition feast, James Gillray, 1787

The king, queen, and prince of wales, seated round a bowl of guineas, ladle coins into their mouths with both hands. The king (right) and queen (left), three quarter length figures, sit facing each other, supporting on their knees the bowl, which is inscribed 'john bull's blood'. The queen is grotesquely caricatured as a lean and avaricious hag, eagerly cramming the contents of two ladles into her mouth; the king is dressed as an old woman. The prince (centre), scarcely caricatured, sits full-face behind the bowl, wearing a fool's cap trimmed with three ostrich feathers. All three have throats terminating in long pelicanlike pouches; that of the prince is empty, the other two are full. The king's ladles are much larger than those of his wife and son. The prince's ladles are inscribed '£10000 pr an' and '£60000 pr an'. They are seated outside the gate of the 'treasury', represented as usual by a spiked gate across a stone archway, but the gate is open behind the head of the prince. 29 may 1787 hand-coloured etching and aquatint. Date: 1787. Dimensions: Height: 368 mm; Width: 469 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: Charlotte, Queen of George III. Collection: British Museum. Monstrous craws, at a new coalition feast (BM 1868,0808.10314 1)