Untitled Caricature of Doctor, 1850

Description

Mounted hand coloured woodcut, untitled, designed and woodcut by anon, and published by Marks and Sons, London, probably around 1850.

A warty faced doctor, with a large head on a small body, holds a huge medicine bottle, labelled “CHLOROFORM”, in both hands. He has a clyster in his pocket. Behind him is a large mortar and pestle decorated with a skull motif and three large pills lettered: “TWO AT NIGHT”, “AND ONE IN”, “THE MORNING”.

In the background are shop fittings and a shelf with three pill boxes and two square medicine bottles. A poem beneath the image reads: “Oh Doctor, Doctor ! come this way; And do not for a moment stay, Make haste to kill both young and old, And fill thy purse with ill got Gold, Hark! don’t you hear the Night Bell ring, You wicked Butcher looking thing, Pound the Pills, mix the draught betime, You shall not be my Valentine”.