[Elmes (William)]

a slightly defective copy but a nonetheless powerful satirical indictment of the sleaze and correption endemic in the world of politics, depicting a grotesquely caricatured candidate ingratiating himself upon a lowly rat-catcher, Mr Lurcher, by bemoaning not having seen him since the last election and inviting him to dinner at the Hog in the Pound, the inn seen in the background, at the mere cost of 10s-6d a ticket, while the bemused Lurcher, wearing a crumpled hat and a patched jacket, draped with a sash depicting his trade, stands holding a cage of rats, with two more dead rats speared on a stick tucked under his arm, while he scratches his head as he reminds the candidate and his agent, who stands behind counting their money, that they had more recently committed him to jail for a month hare-poaching. At his feet stand his two inquisitive terriers, while behind him his portly wife uses a besom to chase a pair of cats off the porch of their cottage,

original hand-coloured etching, 230 x 330 mm. (9 x 13 in), trimmed to the image and title but with losses to the upper and lower right corners, affecting the text of the candidate’s speech, and Elmes’s name below, a less significant loss to the lower left corner, [BM Satires 11923],