The Cole Heavers
Like The New Administration, or the State Quacks Administring earlier in the month, where Gillray portrayed Charles James Fox and Lord North as quack doctors, here he portrays them using the analogy of another well known profession: coal heaving.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Coal heavers packed pieces of coal into sacks and delivered them to customers throughout London. And since nearly every household burned coal for heat, the heavers with their large sacks of coal slung over their shoulders were a common sight.
But in the 18th century, coal/cole was also slang for cash. So here we see Lord North, heaving coins from the public treasury (now mostly MT, that is, empty) into a large sack labeled "For Private Use." The only sack on the wall that has not been vacated contains nothing but pence (D being the pre-decimal designation for a penny). These were no doubt beneath the notice of the honored gentlemen. The perenially disheveled and out of pocket Fox looks on with obvious glee while North says, "Pretty Pickings Charley." The ironic subtitle sums it up:
Two Virtuous Elves,
"Taking care of Themselves
As in the previous year (1782), Gillray is transitioning from portraying Fox as a man with a fox's head (as he does here) to using a portrait caricature. But in Gillray's work of 1783, the number of portrait caricatures is beginning to exceed the traditional depictions. One reason why he might have preferred the more traditional usage in this instance is perhaps to recall an earlier satire, also called The Cole Heavers, where Fox's father (with a fox's head, tail and feet) appears holding a sack to be filled with public gold. Like father, like son.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on The Cole Heavers
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