FB702: The Bath Revolution or the King Deposed

Hand-coloured etching showing a scene with four figures in a passage between two buildings.

On the left, a doorway with beyond a row of railings and a garden beyond. A man in a red coat, buff breeches and blue striped waistcoat is ejecting an elegant man in green coat, ivory breeches, pink waistcoat with gold lace and a large badge with a standing figure. On the ground between them, a gold ball. On the right, a portico, beside which stand a tall man in military coat, boots and bicorn hat, carrying a dice-box and a shillelagh, and a short man in naval uniform in conversation.

In modern mount.

After 1777, the role of Master of Ceremonies had been split between the Upper (new) and Lower (Harrison's) assembly rooms. James King, Master of Ceremonies at the Lower Rooms is one of the few living people to be mentioned in one of Jane Austen's novels. In Chapter 3 of Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland is introduced to Mr Tilney in the Lower Rooms, and he jokes with her about keeping a journal:

[Catherine:] “My journal!"

[Tilney:] "Yes, I know exactly what you will say: Friday, went to the Lower Rooms; wore my sprigged muslin robe with blue trimmings--plain black shoes--appeared to much advantage; but was strangely harassed by a queer, half-witted man, who would make me dance with him, and distressed me by his nonsense.

"Indeed I shall say no such thing."

"Shall I tell you what you ought to say?"

"If you please. "

" 'I danced with a very agreeable young man, introduced by Mr. King; had a great deal of conversation with him--seems a most extraordinary genius--hope I may know more of him.' That, madam, is what I wish you to say ."

This engraving shows King, in court dress, being chased through the door of a house, probably onto the Parade. The stern, plainly-dressed man pushing him out is James Heaven, who in December 1803 was Master of the Lower Rooms and made an attempt to eject King as Master of Ceremonies. A committee was formed to support King, which included Rear-Admiral Stanhope, the naval man depicted on the right, and Col. Strode (the military officer). The allusion to the Golden Apple probably refers to the majority share of profits from balls at the rooms that the Master of Ceremonies was entitled to. See Bath Chronicle Nov and Dec 1803. 

Published by Samuel Fores of Piccadilly, one of the leading London publishers and sellers of caricature prints. He published cartoons designed by Gillray and Rowlandson among others, including Rowlandson's famous Comforts of Bath series. The prints are often anonymous, as in this case. As the inscription on the right shows, Fores' shop could lend (i.e. hire out) whole folios of caricatures for an evening's amusement. Such satires were not published in the press, as they are today, but displayed initially in the print sellers' windows, then pasted into albums, stored in portfolios, or displayed on walls. Good hand-coloured impressions like this one usually sold for a shilling, but plain copies, later impressions from a worn copy, and pirated editions could be had more cheaply. Etching was a useful technique for this kind of print as images could be prepared quickly. The varying depth of the line could also be used to good effect: in the naval officer's word bubble, the d of 'Stand up' is very faint, to create a pun on his name, 'Stanhope', which is pronounced 'Stan'up'.

Trevor Fawcett Voices of Eighteenth-Century Bath: an AnthologyBath, 1995, p.192-3

Trevor Fawcett Bath Entertain'd, Bath, 1998, p.10

Frank Brown ; by whom apparently purchased from Lantern Gallery, George Street, Bath, for £50, probably 1990s; by whom bequeathed to the Museum, 2002.