In the cabinet of the quack doctor, the viscount Squanderfield holds out a small pill-box as a girl dabs her face with a handkerchief. Engraving by B. Baron after W. Hogarth, 1745.

  • Hogarth, William, 1697-1764.
Date:
April 1st 1745
Reference:
38353i
Part of:
Marriage a-la-mode
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view In the cabinet of the quack doctor, the viscount Squanderfield holds out a small pill-box as a girl dabs her face with a handkerchief. Engraving by B. Baron after W. Hogarth, 1745.

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Credit

In the cabinet of the quack doctor, the viscount Squanderfield holds out a small pill-box as a girl dabs her face with a handkerchief. Engraving by B. Baron after W. Hogarth, 1745. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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About this work

Description

The pill-box probably contains remedies for venereal disease. The larger machine is for reducing a dislocated shoulder while the smaller one provides an elaborate way of drawing a cork from a bottle. The doctor polishes his spectacles beside a human skull with syphilitic perforations on the frontal bone. In a cupboard hangs a human skeleton entwined with a life-size anatomical figure (écorché). Above the cupboard, various curiosities are displayed, including armour, moccasins, a giant femur, a comb, a gaper, a model of the triple gallows (Tyburn tree), as well as a glass urinal and a brass shaving dish. A narwhal horn is attached to the cupboard. Hanging from the ceiling is a dried or stuffed crocodile. To the right are two mummy-cases, two paintings of human curiosities, and an apothecaries' cabinet containing pharmacy jars (above) and drawers storing ingredients (below)

Publication/Creation

[London] : Wm Hogarth, April 1st 1745.

Physical description

1 print : engraving, with etching ; image 35 x 44.4 cm.

Lettering

Marriage-a-la-mode, (plate III). Invented painted & published by Wm Hogarth. Engraved by B. Baron. According to act of parliament April 1st 1745. On a machine is a book open at the title page inscribed: "Explication de deux machines superbes l'un pour remettre l'epaules l'autre pour servir de tire bouchon inventes par Monsr de La Pillule. Vues et aprouveès par l'Academie Royal des Sciences a Paris"

References note

R. Paulson, Hogarth's graphic works, London 1989, 3rd edition, no. 160
British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, London 1877, vol. 3, no. 2717

Reference

Wellcome Collection 38353i

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