A dead cut. [graphic] / Clay.
Title
A dead cut
Description
Racist caricature portraying a middle-class African American man-woman couple as snobs who slight a working-class African American man shoeshiner and former acquaintance. Depicts the African American shoeshiner greeting the African American couple who feign ignorance of the man's acquaintance after their return from "de Springs." The laborer, attired in a rumpled top hat, torn overcoat with tails, and patched pants holds his rod of boots in his left hand, and uses his right one to grab the hand of "Cesa." "Cesa," dressed in a flat-top cap, and heavy, long overcoat with handkerchief in the pocket, and plaid pants, looks suspiciously at their joined hands. He holds a walking stick and his companion's parasol in his other hand. He states that the shoeshiner has mistaken his identity (You must be mistaking in de person black man!). His companion, her hand around his elbow, and dressed in a Dunstable bonnet, dark-colored overcoat, and button-down shirtwaist with a collar, agrees. With her hand placed on her hip and holding a purse, she declares, "What does the imperdent nigger mean?" Figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features., Title from item., Publication information from duplicate in collection and advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, December 30, 1829, p. 3. Advertised as entitled "A Dead Cut, or an attempt to slight old Acquaintance.", Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 80-81. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., 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. She also published complementary in subject lithographs after the work of Clay during the same period., Described in the Daily Chronicle, December 26, 1829, p. 2., Accessioned 1893., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator
Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date
[1829]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [5656.F.39]
A dead cut. [graphic] / Drawn on stone by E.W. Clay; Pendleton, Kearny & Childs. Lithogy.
Title
A dead cut
Description
Racist caricature portraying a middle-class African American man-woman couple as snobs who slight a working-class African American man shoeshiner and former acquaintance. Depicts the African American shoeshiner greeting the African American couple who feign ignorance of the man's acquaintance after their return from "de Springs." The laborer, attired in a rumpled top hat, torn overcoat with tails, and patched pants holds his rod of boots in his left hand, and uses his right one to grab the hand of "Cesa." "Cesa," dressed in a flat-top cap, and heavy, long overcoat with handkerchief in the pocket, and plaid pants, looks suspiciously at their joined hands. He holds a walking stick and his companion's parasol in his other hand. He states that the shoeshiner has mistaken his identity (You must be mistaking in de person black man!). His companion, her hand around his elbow, and dressed in a Dunstable bonnet, dark-colored overcoat, and button-down shirtwaist with a collar, agrees. With her hand placed on her hip and holding a purse, she declares, "What does the imperdent nigger mean?" Figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features., Title from item., Publication information from duplicate in collection and advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, December 30, 1829, p. 3. Advertised as entitled "A Dead Cut, or an attempt to slight old Acquaintance.", Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American political caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 80-81. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., 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. She also published complementary in subject lithographs after the work of Clay during the same period., Described in the Daily Chronicle, December 26, 1829, p. 2., Accessioned 1893., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Creator
Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date
[1829]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | PRINT. Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [5656.F.39]
[Scraps no. 3. for 1832] [graphic] / Designed engraved and published by D.C. Johnston.
Title
[Scraps no. 3. for 1832]
Description
Plate four from the 1832 edition of "Scraps," Johnston's popular satirical series of societal caricatures published between 1828 and 1840, and in 1849. Depicts a montage of nine scenes lampooning contemporary social issues and everyday life such as fashion, religious hypocrisy, ignorance, vanity, country life, class inequities, the military, and higher education. Includes 'The Glass of Fashion & The Mould of Form' depicting a white man sales clerk falsely flattering a white man dandy trying on a puff-sleeved coat; "Faith and Works" depicting a hypocritical white man Deacon, near a fireplace, reneging the shelter that he promised to a cold, poor white woman outside his door while his African American servant offers her money; "Arrival of a Country Cousin" depicting a snobby, white, city gentleman snubbing his country cousin; "About to be Astonished" depicting a dimwitted gloating white man farmer about to intentionally kill a sleeping "varmint" and unintentionally kill his friend with a sickle; "Champagne [Campaign] or the Fatigues of Modern Camp Duty" depicting a grossly intoxicated troop of white military officers toasting their intellect and patriotism; "A Body Coat & A Coat of Arms" depicting a rotund and thin "John Smith" exchanging wrongly delivered coats; "The Able-Bodied Man & The Exempt" depicting a scraggly white soldier encountering an "exempt" hardy white gentleman; "Symptoms of Extravagance" depicting a white man, attired in rags, debating the necessity to "dress better on Sunday"; "College Acquirements" depicting an African American man and woman, portrayed in racist caricature and speaking in the vernacular, discussing 'de college for de colour'd circles' based on the beneficial effects of college on "Massa Bob," including his staying out later, no longer reading, and drinking champagne., Title supplied by cataloger., Printed in upper left corner: Plate 4., Published in D.C. Johnston's Scraps No. 3 1832 (Boston: D.C. Johnston, 1832), pl. 4., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Accessioned 1893., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator
Johnston, David Claypoole, 1799-1865
Date
[1832]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1832-Scr (d) [5656.F.24]
A dead cut.
Title
A dead cut
Description
Racist caricature portraying a middle-class African American man-woman couple as snobs who slight a working-class African American man shoeshiner and former acquaintance. Depicts the African American shoeshiner greeting the African American couple who feign ignorance of the man's acquaintance after their return from "de Springs." The laborer, attired in a rumpled top hat, torn overcoat with tails, and patched pants holds his rod of boots in his left hand, and uses his right one to grab the hand of "Cesa." "Cesa," dressed in a flat-top cap, and heavy, long overcoat with handkerchief in the pocket, and plaid pants, looks suspiciously at their joined hands. He holds a walking stick and his companion's parasol in his other hand. He states that the shoeshiner has mistaken his identity (You must be mistaking in de person black man!). His companion, her hand around his elbow, and dressed in a Dunstable bonnet, dark-colored overcoat, and button-down shirtwaist with a collar, agrees. With her hand placed on her hip and holding a purse, she declares, "What does the imperdent nigger mean?" Figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features., Sarah Hart was a Jewish Philadelphia stationer who assumed printing of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. She reprinted the entire original series of 14 prints in 1830., Pendelton, Kearny, & Childs, in operation from 1829 until 1830, was the first successful lithographic firm in Philadelphia. The firm's partners were John Pendleton, Frances Kearny, and Cephas G. Childs., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of Jacksonian America (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 80-81. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., Described in Daily Chronicle, December 26, 1829, 2 and “The Dead Cut,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 31, 1829, 2., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Acquired in 1970.
Creator
Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date
1829
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [7893.F.1]