Two officers on high stools face each other at the counter of a fruit-shop and confectioner's. One (right), tall, lank, and elderly (identified as captain birch, see bmsat 9037), devours a jelly; empty jelly-glasses strew the counter beside him. The other, a mere child, his legs dangling, eats from a large cornet of 'sugar-plumbs'. A buxom woman behind the counter brings a tray of jellies in glasses. In the doorway (right) a third officer, extremely fat and grotesquely knock-kneed, stands with his hands clasped behind him watching a coroneted coach driving past with two footmen in feathered hats standing behind. The officers wear large plumed cocked hats, spurred jack-boots, and sabres. Each pane of the large shop window (left) is decoratively filled with fruit, jars, jelly-glasses, &c. A pottle of strawberries and a partly peeled orange lie on the floor. 9 june 1797
hand-coloured etching. Date: 1797. Dimensions: Height: 360 mm; Width: 258 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: James Birch. Collection: British Museum. Hero's recruiting at Kelsey's; -or- guard-day at St James's (BM 1868,0808.6640)
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