Copy of plates 1-6 from hogarth's 'harlot's progress':
plate 1: a scene outside the bell inn; a country girl, moll hackabout, just arrived on the york wagon, meets an extravagantly dressed bawd (mother needham); a clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter, but a lecherous old gentleman (colonel charteris) eyes the girl with anticipation. Plate 2: a lavishly furnished bedroom; moll distracts her wealthy jewish protector by exposing a breast and at the same time tipping over a tea-table so that her lover can slip quietly out of the room; in the foreground a mask lies on a table, a pet monkey scampers away with a piece of lace and a black boy dressed in a feathered turban and carrying a silver kettle starts with horror as expensive porcelain is shattered; on the far wall are pictures of old testament subjects (jonah iv. 8 and 2 samuel vi. 1-5). Plate 3: a shabby room in drury lane; moll is rising late, attended by a serving-woman who has lost part of her nose to syphilis; in the background, the magistrate, john gonson, enters quietly with officers to arrest her; pinned to the window frame are prints of captain mackheath (the hero of "the beggar's opera") and dr sacheverell (the high anglican clergyman impeached in 1710), the hat-box of james dalton, highwayman, rests above the bed, and one of several beer tankards on the floor carries the name of a local tavern. Plate 4: bridewell prison with inmates (including prostitutes and a card-player) beating hemp under the supervision of a warder holding a cane; moll is still dressed in her finery, but a one-eyed female attendant fingers the lace lappet hanging from her cap and her erstwhile serving-woman is trying on her fashionable shoes and stockings; beyond, a man stands with his hands in a pillory. Plate 5: a squalid room where moll hackabout, wrapped in a sheet, is dying while two doctors (richard rock and jean misaubin) argue over their remedies; her serving-woman calls for attention for the invalid, another woman rifles through a trunk, and a small boy turns a joint of meat roasting in front of the fire. Plate 6: a dilapidated room with moll's friends, mostly prostitutes, gathered around her open coffin; to right, a clergyman gropes beneath a woman's skirt, to left, the undertaker pays court to another who picks a handkerchief from his pocket; in the foreground sits moll's small son playing with a spinning top. All in reverse; cut from a newspaper. Wood-engraving with letterpress. Date: between 1732 and 1842. Dimensions: Height: 60 mm (each image, approx.); Height: 528 mm (sheet); Width: 76 mm (each image, approx.); Width: 77 mm (sheet). Medium: paper. Depicted People: Mother Needham. Collection: British Museum. A Harlot's Progress, Plates 1-6 (BM 1842,1008.4.1-6 1)
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