File:The maid servants address to Master Billy Pitt. (BM 1868,0808.5435).jpg

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Original file ‎(1,600 × 1,291 pixels, file size: 651 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Summary

[edit]
The maid servants address to Master Billy Pitt.   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
The maid servants address to Master Billy Pitt.
Description
English: Pitt stands in a street, attacked from all sides by maidservants. On the left a fat cook attacks him with a spit, another woman uses a mop. On the right a young woman throws at him the contents of the pan of a close-stool, another holds up a broom. Behind Pitt is a house showing three first-floor windows, two of which are blocked up, the word 'Commutation' written across them. From the third a woman empties a chamberpot on Pitt's head. On the right is a shuttered shop, inscribed 'Retail'. On the door is written 'Removed to Dublin'. Beneath the design is engraved:



'On Pretty Maids beware Will Pitt
How taxes thou dost lay
On Pretty Man 'twere far more fit
All Folks do sing or say.

The Cooks will Roast thee all alive
The House Maids well will Scour thee
The Chamber Maids will Jointly strive
With Close Stool pan to Show'r thee.

You stop'd the Light, that God did give
And Drench'd us with your Tea,
Such Commutation whilst we live
No more Ah! may we see.

On Retail Shops be no Tax laid
They do the Poor Supply
Nor Give to Ireland our Trade,
This is the Nations Cry.' 23 May 1785


Etching
Depicted people Associated with: William Pitt the Younger
Date 1785
date QS:P571,+1785-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 248 millimetres
Width: 308 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.5435
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)

A comprehensive attack on Pitt's budgets of 1784 and 1785 and on the Irish Propositions, see BMSat 6785, &c. For the Window (or Commutation) Tax, see BMSat 6634, &. For the proposed tax on employers of maidservants (2s. 6d., with a maximum of 10s.) see 'Parl. Hist.' xxv. 562 ff., Wraxall, 'Memoirs', 1884, iv. 122-4, and cf. the attacks on Sir Cecil Wray (BMSat 6475, &c.); for the Shop Tax see 'Parl. Hist.' xxv. 778 ff. (23 May 1785); 'Ann. Reg.', 1785-6, p. 346. On 14 June there was a riot against the Shop Tax: Pitt was mobbed with cries of 'No Shop Tax, no Irish Bill'. Shops were shuttered and decorated with hatchments, crape, and inscriptions, including 'Removed to Ireland'. 'London Chronicle', 15 June 1785. For the Maidservant Tax see also BMSat 6797, 6800, 6801, 6808, 6914, 6962, 7480. For the Shop Tax see BMSat 6798, &c, and for the combination of propaganda against the Irish Propositions and the Shop Tax see also BMSat 6798, 6799.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-5435
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Licensing

[edit]
This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domain

This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer.

You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States. Note that a few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years: Mexico has 100 years, Jamaica has 95 years, Colombia has 80 years, and Guatemala and Samoa have 75 years. This image may not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the rule of the shorter term. Honduras has a general copyright term of 75 years, but it does implement the rule of the shorter term. Copyright may extend on works created by French who died for France in World War II (more information), Russians who served in the Eastern Front of World War II (known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia) and posthumously rehabilitated victims of Soviet repressions (more information).

This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.

This tag is designed for use where there may be a need to assert that any enhancements (eg brightness, contrast, colour-matching, sharpening) are in themselves insufficiently creative to generate a new copyright. It can be used where it is unknown whether any enhancements have been made, as well as when the enhancements are clear but insufficient. For known raw unenhanced scans you can use an appropriate {{PD-old}} tag instead. For usage, see Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag.

Note: This tag applies to scans and photocopies only. For photographs of public domain originals taken from afar, {{PD-Art}} may be applicable. See Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag.

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current19:53, 9 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 19:53, 9 May 20201,600 × 1,291 (651 KB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1785 #3,480/12,043

You cannot overwrite this file.

Metadata

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.

Retrieved from "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_maid_servants_address_to_Master_Billy_Pitt._(BM_1868,0808.5435).jpg&oldid=659442323"