FB651: The Fancy Ball at the Upper Rooms Bath

Hand-tinted etching with aquatint, apparently removed from a volume.

A grand interior lit by chandeliers, The walls ornamented with niches with sculpted figures and urns. In the centre of one wall, a box with a small band. In the centre of the other wall, and organ. The room is decorated with flowers and the floor seems to be carpeted. Figures in fancy dress are dancing, standing in conversation, or sitting on benches.

In a modern mount.

An illustration from The English Spy: an original work, characteristic, satirical, and humorous. Comprising scenes and sketches in every rank of society, being portraits of the illustrious, eminent, eccentric, and notorious. Drawn from the life by Bernard Blackmantle [pseudonym of Charles Molloy Westmacott]. The illustrations designed by Robert Transit [pseudonym of Robert Cruikshank], published in 1825.

The book was a satirical account of high and low life in England, and includes several scenes in Bath.  Cruickshank himself appears in "Public Bathing at Bath, or Stewing Alive", where he is enjoying the waters.  In "The Pig and Whistle, Avon Street", he can be seen standing on a table in a squalid tavern cheerfully dispensing drink.

Robert Cruikshank was the brother of George and son of Isaac.

This depiction of the interior of the Assembly Rooms is not entirely accurate, and may have been drawn from memory. The costumes chosen by the dancers reflect the fashions of the time.  The couple in the centre below the bandstand are dressed in costumes copied from the actor Edmund Keane's famous Richard III.