Gillray (James)

, Hannah Humphrey, 1802 (but c.1806).
a social satire, as the tongue-in-cheek inscription continues after the title, ‘dedicated to the serious attention of the Fashionable Ladies of Great Britain’. An obese lady swaddled in the voluminous folds of her dress, recoils in horror as a red-hot poker falls from the grate of the nearby fireplace, causing the delicate fabric to burst into flames, throwing her teacup and saucer up in the air, startling her two teatime companions, a stiff army officer who freezes with panic, and a young lady who springs backwards, her knee knocking over the table, tipping over the entire tea service and all the contents. A coarse-featured young footman stops in his tracks, spilling the plate of muffins in his hands, as enters the scene of chaos from our right. A painting of Vesuvius erupting hangs over the mantlepiece..
255 by 355mm (10 by 14 inches).