Print featuring seven characters from the pantomime Harlequin Mother Goose. Etching printed by William West, Exeter Street, 1811.

Print featuring eight images of seven characters from the pantomime Harlequin Mother Goose - from top to bottom, left to right, The Golden Egg and Mother Goose; Prime Bang Up; Harlequin; Zany; Punch; Joan; Harlequin in skirts and Clown played by Joey Grimaldi. Plain. Each image is titled and the name of the publisher is engraved below the images as: 'Published by W.WEST 13 Exeter Street, Strand'.

Herbert Hinkins Collection

This print is the earliest known sheet produced by the 'aristocrat among theatrical stationers', William West (d.1854) who is first heard of as a publisher of sheets of theatrical characters working from the Circulating Library in Exeter Street, near the Strand. During his career he published over 140 plays at a rate of one every other month, recording virtually every successful play on the London stage for over twenty years. Many of the plays were not full acting editions and the earliest were sheets of the principal characters, like this. By 1812 he was beginning to issue sheets of scenes as well. William West told Mayhew in 1850: 'I am a maker of children's theatres and a theatrical print publisher. I have been in the line ever since 1811. The first time I published anything of the kind was when the pantomime of Mother Goose was performing. I was the first in the line.'

By 1812 he had set up premises in Wych Street, opposite the Olympic Theatre, and for ten years or so he appears to have kept both shops open. He gave up the Exeter Street shop later and retired to Wych Street where his last plays were issued in 1831.

This print celebrates the play Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg which was produced at Covent Garden Theatre at Christmas 1806, and shot the clown Joseph Grimaldi to fame. It was still a popular part of Covent Garden's repertoire when the print was published five years later.

The sheet is divided into eight boxes in the manner of a children's lottery print, with each box containing a figure. The four images on the upper row show Mr Simmons as Mother Goose; a driver representing Grimaldi in his 'Bang-up' song (from the Sadler's Wells production of 1810) a Harlequin representing John Bologna in the part, and a Punch with a saltbox and rolling pin, perhaps means to recall the burlesque music made by Grimaldi in the Vauxhall Garden scene of Mother Goose. All the images were copied from existing prints. The two on the right of the lower row are copied from an Ackermann print showing Grimaldi and Bologna (the latter disguised as a St Giles's fruit girl) in the comic pas de deux that was one of the best-known features of Mother Goose. The two figures on the lower left show Punch and his wife, and are copied from Peter Pry's Puppet Show For Good Children, a little book published by Tegg with illustrations attributed to Rowlandson.

This print is the earliest known sheet produced by William West (d.1854) who is first heard of as a publisher of sheets of theatrical characters working from the Circulating Library in Exeter Street, near the Strand. During his career he published over 140 plays at a rate of one every other month, recording virtually every successful play on the London stage for over 20 years. Many of the plays were not full acting editions and his earliest prints were sheets of the principal characters, like this. West began his business in 1811 and by 1812 he was beginning to issue sheets of scenes as well

This print celebrates the play Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg which was produced at Covent Garden Theatre at Christmas 1806, and shot the clown Joseph Grimaldi to fame. It was still a popular part of Covent Garden's repertoire when the print was published five years later. The four images on the upper row show Mr Simmons as Mother Goose; a driver representing Grimaldi in his 'Bang-up' song (from the Sadler's Wells production of 1810), a Harlequin representing John Bologna in the part, and a Punch with a saltbox and rolling pin, perhaps meant to recall the burlesque music made by Grimaldi in the Vauxhall Garden scene of Mother Goose. All the images were copied from existing prints. The two figures on the lower left show Punch and his wife, and on the right, Grimaldi and Bologna (the latter disguised as a St Giles's fruit girl) in the comic pas de deux, one of the best-known features of Mother Goose.

S.83-2003