Buy this book on-line

Henry Bunbury (English Caricaturist, 1750-1811) : [ENGRAVING] “MOSES”

London: J. Harris, 1799

18TH Century engraving, measuring approximately 14" x 10, " “Publish'd Feb 27, 1799.” A British Jew (often generically referred to as “Moses”) shown on the road to Hackney. As the Sign pointed in the opposite direction is for Isling, this scene may be referring to the to the movement of wealthy Jews, "Moses, " from Isling, a wealthy area in decline in the late 18th Century, to Hackney, to which many prominent Jews were moving at the time (includsing, for example, members of the Montefiore family) . The signpost in the image indicates that both travelers are headed toward Hackney. “Stamford Hill [in Hackney] had many eminent Jewish residents, including the Montefiore family. Italian-born Moses Vita Montefiore (died 1789) was living there in 1763. His son Joseph (died 1804) married Rachel Mocatta, and his grandson Abraham Montefiore (died 1824) married Henrietta whose father, the financier Nathan Meyer Rothschild, lived near the modern Colberg Place from 1818 to 1835. The Montefiores' property a little further south was to be transformed by Abraham's grandson, Claude Montefiore, into Montefiore House school. ” Over 200 years later, Stamford Hill has the largest concentration of Haredi Jews in Europe. (Wikipedia, 2017) . The image is identified in the “Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, ” by Mary Dorothy George, in vol. 5, as no. 6339 (printed in 1783; this a slightly later imprint from 1799) . She describes the image as depicting “A stout, complacent-looking man rides a small horse in profile to the left..." The engraving shows the rotund Jew followed by a smiling Black manservant, in three-cornered hat, also on horseback. A few mild creases, light toning, small tears to outer corner of wide left margin, not coming close to image. Very Good Condition. (PAINT-2-7A)

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.