Chalcographimania or, the Portrait-Collector and Printseller's Chronicle, with Infatuations of euery Description. A humorous poem in four books. With copious notes explanatory. By Satiricus Sculptor [i.e. S. W. H. Ireland] |
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POET'S ADDRESS TO CATALOGUS. |
 | Chalcographimania |  |
POET'S ADDRESS TO CATALOGUS.
And shows the boar in ocean's floods.
Good Sir, I plainly now must speak,
For though mine hero—still I'll tweak.
Proboscis whensoe'er I please,
Since sugar-plums won't cure disease,
I now extend corrective hand,
For after conning o'er and o'er,
The extent of your mental store,
You prove e'en in your lov'd pursuit,
Like idiots, gaping all, and mute.
Perhaps at this you'll frown and flout,
And swear that facts can't bear me out,
But Truth subservient is at will,
To dose you with hard griping pill.
But to the point:—Show one Collector,
'Midst all your host that proves reflector,
And knows each foreign knight and sage,
That suits his illustrative page,
Unless beneath the name be writ,
Date, rank, and class, with all that's fit:
For me I've Grangers vast look'd o'er ,
Of Burnet seen stupendous store ,
And Crowle's deem'd first of Clarendons,
To view such men as should reflect,
Imperial hot-press'd paper grace,
With son's in lieu of daddy's face:
While vice versa, through life's run,
Papa hath stood in place of son.
Thus ere tie-wig grac'd napper dense,
I've grandson seen take precedence,
And stand for grandpapa, who wore
On sconce no wig, but nature's store.
All things to know, ne'er judge costume,
Each toils alone vast page to cover,
And rank a Chalcographian lover .
Among other illustrated volumes of this author, I cannot help enumerating Mr. Townley's in particular, whose rare specimens I have very frequently dwelt upon with infinite delight.
In S---r J---s L---k---s pictorial Burnet, among other egregious mistakes, which I did not note at the time it was offered for public inspection, I however particularly well remember remarking, that he had inserted the portrait of one Mainwaring, a physician, instead of the father who was a statesman.
Mr Cr---wl---'s Pennant, which was enriched from the materials of runaway T---mmy Th---mps---n, of Hebraic extraction, is, taking the tout ensemble, a passable specimen of illustration, though many insignificant prints are inserted which disgrace the pages. The Burnet and Clarendon of this collector have to boast numerous very rare specimens of Chalcography; but in these works, as in the above instance of S---r J---s L---k---'s blunder, there are the most flagrant errors: and in respect to the Infanta of Spain, mentioned by Pennant, I have ninety-nine times in the hundred seen a decorative portrait pasted opposite the page, which has no more to do with the lady whom Prince Charles was to have espoused, than I bear an affinity to the Great Kham of Tartary. Similar mistakes occur in the insertion of portraits of the Nassau family. I shall now close this subject by simply stating that in adverting to the character of the late Mr. Cr---wle, as a gentleman and a collector he was ostentatious, proud, and extremely mean in following up the Chalcographian pursuit, of which he was desirous of ranking the most heroic of champions.
Lord M---k K---rr, before mentioned, is possessed of an illustrated Bible, wherein is inserted, as I have been given to understand, an engraving of Magdalena Passe, being a representation from profane history of the Lycian Shepherds transformed into frogs for refusing water to Latona. This print however is placed opposite to the page which records the discovery of Moses in the bull-rushes by Pharoah's daughter. Being thus occupied on the topic of illustrated Bibles, I must not omit to reprehend in the most pointed terms, the loose and indecent prints that frequently appear as pictorial embellishments of holy writ, which are much more framed to grace the annals of a brothel, than stand recorded on the scriptural page.
| Chalcographimania | |