Over Weight - or the Sinking Fund - or the Downfall of Faro, Albinia Hobart, 1797

Lady buckinghamshire, enormously fat, is seated in profile to the right in an open chariot which sinks through a rectangular aperture in front of the weigh-house, its weight being too great for the apparatus for weighing wagons. She throws up her arms and one leg, dropping her whip and reins. The hind legs of the plunging horses are in the pit; they snort wildly; the chariot and horses resemble those of phaeton burlesqued. On the chariot is an oval escutcheon with four quarterings (cards, dice, wine-bottle, and glass) and the letter 'b'. On the right (behind) are two street-lamps on tall pyramidal posts. 14 march 1797 hand-coloured etching. Date: 1797. Dimensions: Height: 275 mm; Width: 370 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: Albinia Hobart, Countess of Buckinghamshire. Collection: British Museum. Over Weight - or the Sinking Fund - or the Downfall of Faro (BM 1868,0808.6608)