"Mr. Liston as Moll Flaggon"
Title
Description
This small (approx. 6 in. by 3 3/4 in.), hand-colored engraved print apparently is removed from a book or periodical. The print shows the actor John Liston in the role of the "low camp follower" Moll Flagon in General Burgoyne's 1780 play, "Lord of Manor" that debuted in Drury Lane Theater, London, Dec. 27, 1780. According to William White in Notes and Queries (1893), 418, the role was off color enough that it could not be played by a woman actor.
The caption reads: "What! not burn priming? __ come load my jewel."
This print is very different than the print on this same subject by G. E. Madeley, in the British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=3468639&partid=1&searchText=bonnet&numpages=200&output=searchText%3dbonnet%26ItemsPerPage%3d200&searchTerm=bonnet&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx¤tPage=5
This print differs too from the wood engraving of a scene from musical comedy by Cruikshank as the frontispiece for "The Lord of the Manor" in Cumberland's British Theater, number 39, 1826: http://books.google.com/books?id=m480AAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA3&lpg=RA2-PA3&dq=cumberland%27s+british+theater+lord+of+the+manor&source=bl&ots=dCbtE0wMIL&sig=6zAn7x3TS1eQKY1vBgtaYx5TWno&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HyYVUZOJOuLC2gWOhYD4Aw&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAQ . This Lake Forest print though is closer in character to the Cruikshank version, the thickness of Moll/Liston, etc. than it is to the lithographic print in the British Museum.
In this case Moll is holding the pipe in her mouth, with a small wine-filled glass in her left hand and a bottle of red wine in her right hand. As in White's description from a painting by De Wilde, this version shows blue stockings, a blue checked apron or petticoat and a bag. The coat in this case is hand-colored also in burgundy wine color, not in black.
The British comedic actor John Liston (1776-1846) did not appear on the London stage until the first decade of the nineteenth century, making this print necessarily of the first half of that century and perhaps after the 1826 Cruikshank print.
The print is from the Edwin N. Asmann collection of prints, presumably from the collection of his aunt, Cornelia Neltnor Anthony (Mrs. Frank) of West Chicago, IL.