Fortune stands, one hand on her wheel, holding in her right arm a cornucopia filled with flowers, wheat-ears, and fruit. She is raised high above a group of her favourites who fill the foreground. A shoeblack (left) sits on a stool smoking a pipe, and pointing to the tools of his trade which are on a low stool in front of him. An old miser hurries from left to right, looking over his right shoulder; he clasps a bag of guineas in his right hand, and holds in his left a corded chest inscribed 'jewels'. Walking towards him (right) is a jovial cobbler, holding up a foaming pot of porter; he wears a leathern apron and under his left arm are two lasts. Behind these three are (left) a peer wearing a ribbon and star, in profile to the left; a grinning and much caricatured butcher looking to the right and holding up a purse; a cheerful sailor with a wooden leg holding up a coin. Behind these again are a well-dressed tailor carrying a garment; a fat alderman eating from a bowl of soup inscribed 'turtle'; a smiling parson holding out a paper inscribed '500 a year', and a carpenter (right) walking to the right with a sack of tools on his back. In the background is partly visible (left) the rotunda of a 'temple of fortune', and (right) a partly built house with scaffolding, on which three builders are at work, one is drinking from an enormous tankard. Beneath the title twelve lines of verse are engraved beginning:
'in every station, search the world around,
and happiness may easily be found:' c. 1786
hand-coloured mezzotint. Date: 1786. Dimensions: Height: 347 mm; Width: 249 mm. Medium: paper. Collection: British Museum. Fortune's Favourites- or Happiness in every Situation (BM 1935,0522.1.10)
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