Bunbury. A Visit to the Camp: The Relief

A pair of satirical prints made by Watson & Dickinson after the designs of Henry William Bunbury. Stipple engravings “London Publish’d, Decr. 1st 1779 by Watson & Dickinson No.158 New Bond Street. Dickinson’s catalogue identifies Watson as the engraver of this particular plate.

In a Visit to the Camp, Bunbury depicts two visiting groups of middling classes making their visit to inspect a militia camp, Bunbury mocking their attitude and signs of status by contrasting them with two perhaps overly elegant young soldiers.

In The Relief, engraved and published by Dickinson in 1781, the visitors are portrayed as ruffians, ribbons in their hats indicating that they are supporters of Lord George Gordon and his Protestant Association. The Gordon Riots of June 1780 were primarily fuelled by the anti-Catholic cause of Lord Gordon and were the most destructive in the history of London with army camps being established in Hyde Park, St James’s Park and the garden of the British Museum. An early call for a London (Metropolitan) police force was begun at the time of these riots.

Both engravings sympathetically framed in copies of eighteenth century print frames.

overall dimensions:15 3/8 in x 13 3/8 in