Lilliputian humorists: drawn as big as life

About Filters

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: Each print depicts a pair of characters bound by a decorative border that also includes within it four lines of dialogue in verse beneath each character which describe the action of the image. Borders include depictions of children, animals, birds and various products. Dwarf-like figures representing various professions, nationalities and types including soldiers and sailors, aristocrats, pilgrims, a dancing master, a bridegroom, an alchemist, a savoyard, figures purported to be Spaniard, Italian, and Dutch; includes some figures are smoking pipes.
Dates / Origin: Date Issued: 1730; Place: London; Publisher: [Bowles, J.?], Printed and sold at the White Horse without Newgate
Library locations: George Arents Collection; Shelf locator: Arents 96-353 no. 18-26
Topics: Alchemy; Cuckolds; Dance; Eating & drinking; Grooms (Weddings); Monkeys; Nobility; Smoking in art; Soldiers; Swordplay; Thieves
Genres: Prints; Illustrations
Notes: Content: Title from engraved title page.; Content: Figures probably after Il callotto resuscitato, oder, Neu eingerichtes Zwerchen Cabinet, [1715?].
Physical Description: Extent: 9 prints : engraving ; sheet 28 x 31 cm. or smaller; Plate marks: 25 x 27 cm. or smaller; Engravings
Type of Resource: Still image
Identifiers: RLIN/OCLC: NYPG96-F153; NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b12751536; Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 3d837ac0-c622-012f-d436-58d385a7bc34