3-061-196 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Gin Shop, 1828. A satirical sketch on the dangers of drinking alcohol. Signs warn: 'To the Workhouse, to the Mad house, to the Gaol, to the Gibbet'. The figure of Death, holding an hour-glass, says: 'I shall have them all dead drunk presently! They have nearly had their last glass'. Coffin-shaped boxes are labelled 'Old Tom, Deady's Cordial, Blue Ruin' etc. The customers - standing in a metal trap - include a mother feeding gin to her child. On the counter next to the shopkeeper - a skeleton wearing a mask - lies a booklet entitled 'The Way to Wealth'. Demons dance around a still in the 'Spirit Vaults'. "now Oh dear, how shocking the thought is, They makes the gin from aquafortis: They do It on purpose folks lives to shorten And tickets it up at two-pence a quartern" - new Ballad'. From Scraps and Sketches Etc.