Currently not on view
John Bull and the Sinking Fund,
published February 23, 1807
James Gillray, British, 1757–1815
Published by Hannah Humphrey, British, 1745–1818
Published by Hannah Humphrey, British, 1745–1818
x1962-28
A sinking fund receives surplus tax revenues that are then used to repay debt. Sinking funds were popular with British governments in the eighteenth century, and Lord North instituted such a fund in 1786 to help repay the national debt incurred fighting in the American Revolution. The plan worked well until 1793, when war with France destroyed any logical rationale for the fund. John Bull, depicted here, is the personification of England.
Information
Title
John Bull and the Sinking Fund
Dates
published February 23, 1807
Maker
Medium
Hand-colored engraving
Dimensions
plate: 25 x 35.1 cm. (9 13/16 x 13 13/16 in.)
sheet: 34.5 x 48.4 cm. (13 9/16 x 19 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Hugh Trumbull Adams, Class of 1935
Object Number
x1962-28
Place Made
Europe, England, London
Inscription
Titled in plate, upper left to right: JOHN-BULL and the SINKING-FUND — a Pretty scheme for Reducing the Taxes & paying off the National Debt!
Printed below plate, from left to right: Js. Gillray inv. & fect. Pub.d Feb.y 23d 1807 by H. Humphrey 27 St. James’s Street.
Numerous inscriptions made in plate throughout the plate, often acting as speech bubbles
Reference Numbers
Grego 344
Type
Techniques
Subject
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and descriptive account of the caricatures of James Gillray: comprising a political and humorous history of the latter part of the reign of George the Third (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1851). , no. 336
-
Thomas Wright, ed., The works of James Gillray, the caricaturist: with the story of his life and times (London: Chatto and Windus, Publishers, 1873).
, pp. 343–344 (illus.) - "Recent acquisitions," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 22, no. 1 (1963): p. 15-19., p. 16
- Frederic George Stephens, M. Dorothy George, and The British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires preserved in the department of prints and drawings in the British Museum (London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1978). , no. 10697
