Monthly Archives: December 2012

A tale for Christmas 1779

On 15 January 1821, Douce wrote in his Book of Coincidences that he “had had a strange dream about Lady Craven”. Elizabeth Berkeley (1750-1828), who would become margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth after her second marriage following the death of Lord Craven in … Continue reading

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The ruff-setter

In 1817, the April issue of The Critical Review carried an article on Philip Stubbes’s The Anatomie of Abuses (1583), in which Douce and his print Der Kragen Setzer are mentioned with regard to extravagant fashions and to the moral … Continue reading

Posted in Costumes, Engravings, Everyday life, Fashion, Prints, Satirical prints, Shakespeare | Comments Off on The ruff-setter

Britannia Excisa

This satire on Robert Walpole’s 1733 Excise Bill was misplaced (maybe by Thomas Dodd, who did some rearranging after Douce’s death) and kept among Douce’s wood-engravings, which I have been cataloguing this week: The print has been cut from a … Continue reading

Posted in Ballads, Broadsides, Collections and Collectors, Networks, Prints, Satirical prints, Tax, Woodcuts | Comments Off on Britannia Excisa