Britania's Assassination. or___The Republicans Amusement.

£3,800 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum (vol V, 5987). The American Revolution in drawings and prints; a checklist of 1765-1790 graphics in the Library of Congress no. 818. The copy at the Lewis Walpole Library is also on wove paper. A re-strike exists with “Gillray fecit” in the lower right-hand corner of the print (which is not present here) and Swann Galleries offered a copy of the print in 2020 which has the watermark “Fellows” (not present here either) and was thought to be a later impression. Both examples in the British Museum are uncoloured. “He that Fights runs away, May live to fight another day“ A fine and important caricature by James Gillray in which a Native American is seen fleeing with the head and arm of Britannia while republicans at home (such as Wilkes and Burke) attack the remains of the statue. This is one the earliest prints that Gillray produced for Elizabeth d’Archery and was immediately noticed and commented upon by the newspapers in London: “A very extraordinary caricature has lately made its appearance at a print shop in St. James’s-street, under the title of Britannia’s Assassination, or the Republican’s Amusement. The design is conceived with no small degree of severity and ill-nature. The story is Britannia, sitting on a globe, surrounded by several known political characters, each of whom appears hostile to her. An Admiral, hauling down the signal for battle, with a well-chosen line from Butler in a label. A sagacious

• Year: 1782

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