[Heath (William)]

the title continues ‘Vide Gay’s Fable of the Daw and other Birds’, although this particular story of Aesop’s does not, in fact, appear in John Gay’s 18th century collection. It depicts a jackdaw, with the head of Napoleon, being mobbed on the ground by four large eagles, all crowned and with crown-like bands around their extended necks, representing Francis I of Austria, Frederick William III of Prussia, the double-headed Alexander I of Russia, and Bernadotte of Sweden, all snatching at Napoleon’s crown, the ribbon of his Legion d’honneur, and the ostrich feathers looking grandiosly out of place on his back. Three winged crowns also hover in the group, representing Poland, Bohemia (possibly in error for Bavaria) and Spain, while in the background a mounted Cossack charges down and spears two French soldiers while a third flees for his life. Published on November 19th, 1813, this is a satire on the decisive defeat of Napoleon’s army by the combined forces of these other nations at the Battle of Leipzig in the October of that year,

original hand-coloured etching, 230 x 335 mm. (9 x 13 1/4 in), laid on card support, some browning and damp-staining, a few repaired tears at sheet edges, [BM Satires 12098],