Print entitled This is the House that Jack Built, 1809, Harry Beard Collection

Etching.
Six designs arranged in two horizontal rows; below each is a verse .
From Left to Right:
[1] A view of the outside of Covent Garden theatre. Below the design "This is the House that Jack Built".
[2] A view of the boxes which are overcrowded and are holding pieces of paper which say "Old Prices", "No private boxes", "A Games Bull" and "No cats". Below the design: "'These are the Boxes let to the Great, That visit the House that Jack built."
[3] A view of a section of the two upper tiers of boxes referred to as the Pidegon holes which are overcrowded with unhappy spectators. Below the design "These are the Pigeon-holes over the Boxes".
[4] A caricature of Catalani who is drawn with a cats head is singing "Ah!G'araGarik". Below the design "This is the Cat engaged to squall, to the Poor in the Pigeon holes".
[5] A man is pictured blowing a bugle horn. Below the design: "This is John Bull, with his bugle horn, that hiss'd the Cat, engaged to squall".
[6] A man is pictured shaking a stick and below is printed "This is the Thief taker shaven and shorn, that seized John Bull & c".
[7] A caricature of man who is probably Kemble stands with arms extended and say "What do you all want!". Below is printed "This is the Manager full of scorn, who Raised the Price to People forlorn, and directed the Thief-taker".

Harry R. Beard Collection, given by Isobel Beard

Print entitled <i>This is the House that Jack Built</i>, 1809, Harry Beard Collection.

After the destruction of the Covent Garden Theatre by fire in December 1808 and its rebuilding in 1809, John Philip Kemble, the manager of the theatre, raised the price of tickets to compensate for the cost of the theatre's reconstruction. This and the creation of privately hired theatre boxes caused riots, known as the Old Price Riots, that lasted three months and ultimately forced Kemble to reduce the number of private boxes and restore the 'old prices'. This print, parodying the nursery rhyme This is the House that Jack Built, is a satire on the riots. The Cat is Italian soprano Angelica Catalani who had been engaged for a substantal fee, leading to complaints that prices had been increased in order to pay for her.

S. 294-2012