‘Symptoms of Life in London_or Love, Law, & Physic’, 1821

Description

Mounted hand coloured etching entitled ‘Symptoms of Life in London_or Love, Law, & Physic. _’, designed by Lt John Sheringham, etched by George Cruikshank, and published by G. Humphrey in 1821.

Three designs side by side on one sheet. Outside a druggist, locked and boarded for the night, a dandy is amused by two fashionable prostitutes who, unknown to him, are stealing his watch and wallet.

A bailiff and his assistant apprehended a surprised dandy in the street.

In a sick room, the mantlepiece lined with medicine bottles, a thin bald doctor dressed in professional grey, with gold-topped cane and top-hat in hand, sits and studies his seated patient in nightshirt and cap. An old nurse stands behind the doctor.

The title is that of a farce by Kenney, first performed on the 20th November 1812 at Covent Garden.