Back to item summary

1. Engraving: Court gossops (London, 1732).

Lady Vane was Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline, and mistress of Frederick, Prince of Wales. On 4 June 1732, after a very public confinement in St. James’s Palace, she gave birth to a son, whose paternity was the subject of much speculation and comment.

Topical satires like this engraving simultaneously communicated fresh scandal, and depended on a pre-existing knowledge of the scandal, in order to make sense. Displayed in print-shop windows across London a passer-by, and would-be buyer of this print, would need to know at least some of ‘the dirt’ on Anne Vane in order to understand the satire.

In this engraving the group on the right conveys the ‘dirt’ on Lady Vane: herself, the Prince, the priest and the crown suspended over the bed, each telling part of the story. The group in the centre of the picture and the bookcase contextualise this event. They represent lascivious writings and behaviour in general and are an attack on the court and maids of honour in particular.

The bookcase and shelf on the far left of ‘The Court Gossops’ is filled with erotic books and pamphlets. Although this representation of a small library of erotica was created to serve a particular satirical purpose, it accurately represents what was considered to be ‘lewd and scandalous’ in 1732. The titles include Classical works such as Ovid’s Epistles and The Art of Love; works by Restoration poets and dramatists such as Rochester’s Poems and Congreve’s The Old Batchelor; contemporary erotica such as The Natural History of the Arbor Vitæ and The Fair Concubine, and accounts of Lady Vane such as Vanelia and Vanella in the Straw.

Many of the titles in this imagined courtly library of erotica are represented in the exhibition. As well as the following three items, see nos. 6, 9, 10, 32, 33, 56, 61, 107, and 108.

Though they were originally printed in large numbers, satires of this type dated very quickly and were rarely preserved. Typically, no other copy of this print seems to have survived.