The Broken Hong Merchant or The Empty Tea Chest - Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773–1843)
John Doyle (H.B.) (Dublin 1797 – London 1868)
Category
Art / Prints
Date
1838
Materials
Paper
Measurements
300 mm (h)440 mm (w)
Order this imageCollection
Blickling Hall, Norfolk
NT 354046.23
Summary
Print, lithograph, The Broken Hong Merchant or The Empty Tea Chest - Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773–1843) by John Doyle (H.B.) (Dublin 1797 – London 1868). Part collection (49) of HB Sketches. Published by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket. No.558 , 18th Nov 1838. Text from 'An Illustrative Key to the Political Sketches of H.B.', 'London 1841: A resolution, submitted to the House of Commons by Mr. Gillon, the Member for Linlithgow, to increase the allowance to His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex having been negatived, a letter appeared very shortly afterwards in all the public papers, in which His Royal Highness announced his intention of resigning his seat as President of the Royal Society, and assigned pecuniary difficulties as one of the causes of his taking this extraordinary step. This letter created no little surprise; and, to a generous public, it seemed very distressing that a Prince of the blood-royal, and a Prince who had enjoyed through his whole life no small share of popular favour, should be so straightened in his means, as to be compelled to give up a post which confers the highest honour upon him who fills it, for no other reason than the want of a sufficient income to meet the expenses which unavoidably belong to it, particularly as it was understood that very little expense was attached to the office, beyond that of holding a certain number of meetings at the President's house, when the custom was to give no other refreshment than tea. To perpetuate the melancholy circumstance of His R.H.'s surrender of the President's chair, he is here represented as a "Broken Hong Merchant," with an empty tea-chest, and without the means of replenishing it.'
Makers and roles
John Doyle (H.B.) (Dublin 1797 – London 1868), engraver (printmaker)