Lilliputian characters

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Collection History

Many 19th century plate books on customs and costume came to NYPL from the founding Lenox and Astor library holdings, as well as the personal library of benefactor Samuel J. Tilden. Many of the titles chosen for digitization show dress in the context of ethnicity or nationality. Related dress materials, such as accessories and body ornamentation, are also included.

Related Resources

See also the following digital collections for additional regional works: [Africana & Black History; Asia and the Pacific Rim in Early Prints and Photographs; The Luso-Hispanic New World in Early Prints and Photographs; After Columbus: Four-hundred Years of Native American Portraiture; and Icons and Images of Cultures: Plate Books from the Russian Empire, Early Soviet Russia, and Eastern Europe, 1730-1935]

- 9/23/2004

Collection Data

Description: Dwarf-like figures in groups of three, with four lines of dialogue in verse beneath each figure describing the action in the image. Situations depicted include courtship and adultery, a swordfight, a trial of a woman accused of prostitution who claims to have been raped, a pastoral scene with shepherds and shepherdesses, pilgrims discussing indulgences, a ships captain, a planter from Virginia and a Dutch Indies Governor, men who have been impressed into the army training, cavaliers and courtiers, Polly Peachum and Capt. Mackheath, actors and mimes, servants, a beadle, and a rag man; includes some figures smoking pipes. Each character is named, some with references to literature or folklore, most with names consisting of puns such as Swillgut Bacon-face, Mrs. Dorothy Dandle-puppy, Widow, and Pigtail Modish, Esqr.
Dates / Origin: Date Issued: 1730 - 1739 (Approximate); Place: England
Library locations: George Arents Collection; Shelf locator: Arents 96-353 no. 1-17
Topics: Smoking in art -- England; Courtship; Adultery; Shepherds; Snuff; Swordplay
Genres: Prints; Cartoons (Commentary)
Notes: Content: Title devised by cataloger. Figures probably after Il callotto resuscitato, oder, Neu eingerichtes Zwerchen Cabinet, [1715?]. Many of the same groupings of characters appear in The humours of the Lilliputians ... , Printed and sold by John Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornhill, [178-?].
Physical Description: Engravings; Extent: 17 prints : engraving ; 30 x 40 cm
Type of Resource: Still image
Identifiers: RLIN/OCLC: NYPG96-F154; NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b12751533; Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 3c8b8b80-c6b3-012f-ff04-58d385a7bc34