Creator |
Summers, William, artist. |
Contributor |
Hunt, Charles, engraver. |
|
Isaacs, W.H., publisher. |
Title |
Life in Philadelphia. "What you tink of my new poke bonnet...?" [graphic] / Hunt, Sc. |
Publisher |
London: Pub. by W.H. Isaacs, Charles St. Soho Sqre |
Publisher |
ENG. London. 1833 |
Date |
[ca. 1833] |
Physical Description |
1 print: hand-colored aquatint; 23 x 19 cm (9 x 7.25 in.) |
Description |
Racist caricature depicting an African American woman trying on a bonnet in the company of her African American companion,
"Frederick Augustus." Depicts the woman in profile, in front of a standing mirror tilted toward her, trying on a yellow Dunstable
bonnet so large that the side of her face is obscured. Her hand rests on the side of the hat adorned with a pink ribbon. Her
reflection is not visible in the mirror. She wears a pink calico dress with a white collar that covers her shoulders, white
gloves, patterned stockings, and white slipper shoes. She asks "Frederick Augustus" what he thinks. He stands behind her with
his arms crossed and looks toward the mirror. He holds a walking stick under his left upper arm. A dog with a muzzle sits
behind him. He responds that he does not like the style. He wears a beard and is attired in a top hat, long blue overcoat
with collar, striped pants, white gloves, and black slipper shoes. A white woman sales clerk, wearing a large top-knot hairstyle,
watches the woman from behind a counter on which other Dunstable bonnet and a candlestick are displayed. Bonnets, hat boxes,
and packages on shelving and pink and yellow bunting is visible above the clerk’s head. The figures are portrayed with oversized
and exaggerated features.
|
Notes |
Title from item. |
|
Date inferred from content and name of publisher. |
|
After the work of Edward W. Clay. |
|
Attributed to William Summers. |
|
Plate 14 of the original series published in Philadelphia. |
|
Contains seven lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: What you tink of my new poke bonnet Frederick
Augustus? I don’t like him no how, case dey hide you lubly face, so you can’t tell one she nigger from anoder.
|
|
Charles Hunt was a respected London engraver who was most well known for his aquatints of sporting subjects. |
|
Copy published in Philadelphia described in Pennsylvania Inquirer, 17 June 1830, p. 2 and ‘Life in Philadelphia, No. 14. The
Dunstable Bonnet’, Pennsylvania Inquirer, 17 June 1830, p. 3.
|
|
RVCDC |
|
Description revised 2021. |
|
Access points revised 2021. |
Subject |
African Americans -- Caricatures and cartoons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia. |
|
African American women -- Caricatures and cartoons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia. |
|
African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia. |
|
African American women -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia. |
|
African Americans -- Clothing & dress -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia. |
|
Conversation. |
|
Middle-class -- Clothing & dress -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia. |
|
Millinery. |
|
Racism in popular culture. |
|
Shopping -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia. |
|
Women clerks (Retail trade) -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia. |
Genre |
Caricatures -- 1830-1840. |
|
Aquatints -- Hand-colored -- 1830-1840. |
Printer |
Isaacs, W.H., publisher. |
Location |
Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Life in Philadelphia (London Set) [P.9709.1] |
Accession number |
P.9709.1 |