Coloured engraved caricature of Napoleon Bonaparte entitled 'Mock Auction or Boney selling Stolen Goods'.

BM 12123. Landscape. On piece of paper roughly 245 x 375 mm. Dimensions of engraving roughly 220 x 330 mm. A good, complete image on lightly aged and spotted paper, with slight loss to the top left-hand corner of the margin and a few pin holes to the margins. Napoleon, in martial regalia, stands at the rostrum, gavel in hand, leaning on a piece of paper which says 'Speedily will be sold the Thirteen CANTONS OF SWITSERLAND'. Napoleon is saying 'What no bidding for the Crown of Spain There take the other crowns and lump them into one lot'. One of those present replies 'That a CROWN! It's not worth half a CROWN.' On the floor at the foot of the rostrum is a pile of crowns, with papers headed 'LOT OF USELESS EAGLES', 'Kingdom of Bavaria Lot 2', 'Kingdom of Prussia', Kingdom of Westphalia', 'Saxony' and 'United Provinces'. Behind the emperor stands a young woman with a monkey-faced baby [the Empress Marie Louise, and ', who is sayinng 'I suppose daddy will put us up for sale.' This item has been attributed to Rowlandson, but there is no internal evidence of the identity of the artist.