Details
Creator Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher.
Contributor Hart, Sarah, publisher.
Title Life in Philadelphia. "Behold thou art fair Deborah,..." [graphic].
Publisher Philadelphia: Published by S. Hart, So. 3d. St
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1830
Date [1830]
Physical Description 1 print : hand-colored etching ; sheet 16 x 15 cm (6.25 x 5.75 in.)
Description Caricature satirizing the manners of Quakers and depicting a white Quaker couple, Deborah and Timothy, courting in front of a fireplace in a sitting room. In the right, Timothy, depicted in left profile sits stiffly in a wooden, straight back chair with his hat in his lap. He is portrayed with full lips, a pronounced nose, and large ears and with his brown hair in a bowl cut. He wears a blue long coat, blue pants, and tied shoes. He compliments Deborah by reciting verses from the biblical love poem Song of Solomon. In the right, Deborah, portrayed facing the viewer, sits stiffly in a wooden, straight back chair with her hands in her lap. She is attired in a brown plain, long-sleeved dress, and a white kerchief over her shoulders. She also wears a white cap out of which sprays of her brown hair are visible on her forehead. Dorothy replies she is overcome by him and recites that his hair is like a flock of goats "from Gilead." A pug-like dog sits between their feet. Also shows, in the background, wooden, straight back chairs flanking the mantelpiece of the fireplace on which two candles rest.
Notes Inscribed: Plate 2.
Title from item.
Date inferred from content and name of publisher.
Date inferred from name and address of publisher and time period of her publication of the series.
Contains five lines of dialogue below the image: Behold thou art fair Deborah, thou hast doves eyes. Behold thou art fair Deborah, yea pleasant! Turn away thine eyes from me, Timothy, for they overcome me; thy hair is a flock of goats that appear from Gilead!
Sarah Hart was a Jewish Philadelphia fancy goods store owner and printseller who with her son future Philadelphia publisher Abraham Hart, assumed publication of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. Sarah Hart solely reprinted the entire series of 14 prints in 1830.
Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist of the Jacksonian era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 88. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)
RVCDC
Description revised 2021.
Access points revised 2021.
Purchase 1990.
Subject Chairs.
Couples -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Courtship.
Dogs.
Middle class -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Recitations.
Society of Friends -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Society of Friends -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- Clothing & dress.
Women -- Clothing & dress -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Women printsellers.
Genre Caricatures -- 1820-1830.
Etchings -- Hand-colored -- 1820-1830.
Printer Hart, Sarah, publisher.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9288]
Accession number P.9288