A Fox-Hunting Breakfast.

£1,800 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Initials “J.H” and “R.S.” in the lower left and right-hand corners. The British Museum has two impressions (one coloured) but we have not traced any other examples. An early morning scene showing a group of country gentlemen preparing for a hunt with a hearty breakfast. The print explores the ideas surrounding masculinity in the period contrasting the hearty hunters with a well-dressed “Macaroni.” A group of men are shown around a breakfast table preparing for the days hunt with a breakfast of wine and a large pie. The dog in the foreground remains asleep. The verse beneath the print reads: “The Man that will not leave his bed For sport so blithe bonny, We’ll swear he hates fatigue dirt, And call him Macaroni. We’ll wonder at his want of Taste, Since nothing so bewitches, As living all the winter long in Boots Leather Breeches.“ The print and the verse suggest that “real” 18th-century country gentlemen do not fear the dirt and grime of a hunt. The gentleman at the left-hand side of the table is shown, pie-in-hand, staring at a rather carefully dressed gentleman (taking only coffee) and having his hair tenderly combed and dressed by a servant. The suggestions seems to be that not only is this gentleman not accompanying the other men on the hunt but that, due to the intricacies of his Macaroni wardrobe and toilet, he is also forced to rise early in the morning.

• Binding: Hardcover

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