Description
[Hone, William?] The Old Black Cock and His Dunghill Advisers in Jeopardy; or, the Palace that Jack Built. By the Author of the R _ _ _ l Fowls. With Twelve Cuts. London: Printed by and for Effingham Wilson. Royal Exchange. 1820. One Shilling. Only 11 woodcuts, as issued, not 12 as stated on the title-page; these woodcuts are hand-colored. 21.5 cm, 22 pages. Disbound. Verso of the title-page is blank (page2). Very slight and isolated foxing on a few pages, otherwise a bright copy with vivid hand-coloring. Not in Cohn. An unsigned satire on King George IV and the proceedings against his wife, Queen Caroline, with a title-page woodcut implying regicide (as a figure brandishing a drawn knife approaches a “black cock” with George IV’s face engraved into the bird’s beak). All of the chickens in these woodcuts have the likenesses of the humans involved in the royal scandals that arose from George IV’s marriage to Queen Caroline. The woodcuts are understandably not initialed. Presumed first edition. William Hone is not the only person to whom authorship is attributed. John Agg is attributed authorship by Halkett and Laing.
Illustration on page 5, showing King George IV’s crowned head on the body of a black rooster, with Windsor Castle in the background.
