![[after Francis Edward ADAMS (1745-1777)]. A New Method of Macarony Making, as Practiced at Boston in North America. Printed for Carrington Bowles, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Published 12 Octr 1774.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2021/NYR/2021_NYR_18947_0305_000(after_francis_edward_adams_a_new_method_of_macarony_making_as_practice122236).jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
[after Francis Edward ADAMS (1745-1777)]. A New Method of Macarony Making, as Practiced at Boston in North America. Printed for Carrington Bowles, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Published 12 Octr 1774.
London’s view of John Malcom’s Tarring and Feathering in Boston. A rare pre-war mezzotint, particularly in the present form of reverse-colored glass, that depicts two Bostonians forcing a tarred and feathered customs official, with a noose around his neck, to drink from a teapot. The subject is John Malcom (d. 1788), the notorious loyalist Boston customs official. In January 1774, soon after the Boston Tea Party, shoemaker George Twelves Hughes confronted Malcom as the customs official was threatening to strike a young boy with his cane. After insisting that Hughes had no business interfering in the affairs of a gentleman, Malcom struck the shoemaker rendering him unconscious. Street justice was swift for Malcom, and by that evening he found himself at the mercy of mob who, despite the pleadings from Whig leaders, and even George Hewes who had since recovered from his assault, stripped the customs officer to the waist and covered him with tar and feathers. The crowd paraded the disgraced Malcom around Boston for hours until they demanded he offer a public apology in exchange for his release. When Malcom refused, the crowd placed a noose around his neck and threatened to hang him, but to no avail. Only the threat of having his ears cut persuaded Malcom to relent. Malcom returned soon to London, and while awaiting word on a petition to George III for relief, stood for Parliament opposing John Wilkes. In an effort to gain further sympathy for his ultimately unsuccessful campaign against Wilkes, it appears that Malcom himself may have charged Francis Edward Adams to engrave the present image as it was issued only a week before the election. It portrays Malcom sympathetically, confirmed by the verse below the title: “For the Custom House Officers landing the Tea, They Tarr’d him, and Feather’d him, just as you see. And they drendch’d him so well both behind and before, That he begg’d for God’s sake they would drench him no more.” Above one of Malcom’s tormentors wears a hat bearing the number “45,” an allusion to John Wilkes’s incendiary 1763 essay in the 45th issue of his periodical, The North Briton. For an excellent analysis of this image and for lots 306 and 307 in this catalogue see, Amy Torbert, Dissolving the Bonds: Robert Sayer and John Bennett, Print Publishers in an Age of Revolution., PhD. Diss., University of Delaware, 2017, pp. 190-217. Cresswell 668.
Mezzotint laid down on glass and hand-colored on verso. 14 3/8 x 10 1/2 in (366 x 265mm). (Some marginal wear and small losses, several slight tears and abrasions toward lower margin, light toning, glass intact.) Framed.
London’s view of John Malcom’s Tarring and Feathering in Boston. A rare pre-war mezzotint, particularly in the present form of reverse-colored glass, that depicts two Bostonians forcing a tarred and feathered customs official, with a noose around his neck, to drink from a teapot. The subject is John Malcom (d. 1788), the notorious loyalist Boston customs official. In January 1774, soon after the Boston Tea Party, shoemaker George Twelves Hughes confronted Malcom as the customs official was threatening to strike a young boy with his cane. After insisting that Hughes had no business interfering in the affairs of a gentleman, Malcom struck the shoemaker rendering him unconscious. Street justice was swift for Malcom, and by that evening he found himself at the mercy of mob who, despite the pleadings from Whig leaders, and even George Hewes who had since recovered from his assault, stripped the customs officer to the waist and covered him with tar and feathers. The crowd paraded the disgraced Malcom around Boston for hours until they demanded he offer a public apology in exchange for his release. When Malcom refused, the crowd placed a noose around his neck and threatened to hang him, but to no avail. Only the threat of having his ears cut persuaded Malcom to relent. Malcom returned soon to London, and while awaiting word on a petition to George III for relief, stood for Parliament opposing John Wilkes. In an effort to gain further sympathy for his ultimately unsuccessful campaign against Wilkes, it appears that Malcom himself may have charged Francis Edward Adams to engrave the present image as it was issued only a week before the election. It portrays Malcom sympathetically, confirmed by the verse below the title: “For the Custom House Officers landing the Tea, They Tarr’d him, and Feather’d him, just as you see. And they drendch’d him so well both behind and before, That he begg’d for God’s sake they would drench him no more.” Above one of Malcom’s tormentors wears a hat bearing the number “45,” an allusion to John Wilkes’s incendiary 1763 essay in the 45th issue of his periodical, The North Briton. For an excellent analysis of this image and for lots 306 and 307 in this catalogue see, Amy Torbert, Dissolving the Bonds: Robert Sayer and John Bennett, Print Publishers in an Age of Revolution., PhD. Diss., University of Delaware, 2017, pp. 190-217. Cresswell 668.
Mezzotint laid down on glass and hand-colored on verso. 14 3/8 x 10 1/2 in (366 x 265mm). (Some marginal wear and small losses, several slight tears and abrasions toward lower margin, light toning, glass intact.) Framed.