The Unwelcome Customer, 1772

Satire on london life. The interior of a milliner's shop into which a bull has charged causing consternation. Two drovers and their dogs have followed the bull through the door and one man belabours him with a stick. Two middle-aged women customers react with alarm, one falling off her chair, the other seizing her lapdog by the tail; a muff has fallen and the bull's horn impales it; a box with cards of lace falls to the floor; a young man (their servant?) wearing a hat with large feather seizes the sword of an effeminate man who shrinks back holding a strip of lace to his face while a small girl hides behind him. A lawyer has climbed on the counter and helps up a portly colleague who has dropped his brief on the floor. Behind the counter are three shop assistants: one faints and is supported by another who looks anxiously at the bull; a third who has climbed up to take down a box from a shelf behind the counter looks back in shock. Ribbons hang in the bow window and boxes stacked on the shelves incude one labelled "gloves" and another labelled "ribbons"; a hat box hangs on the wall to right. 17 august 1772 etching and engraving. Date: 1772. Dimensions: Height: 160 mm; Width: 363 mm. Medium: paper. Collection: British Museum.