Object number
TN.2008.1894
Title
Youthful Diversions
Date
1740-10-24 - 1740-10-24
Creator
Production notes
Probably responsible for Playing with Cards’, ‘Bow and Arrows’, ‘The Dancing Puppets’, and ‘Playing with Marbles’
Material
Size
w x ht: 38.5 x 48.5 cm
Description
Six different games for children, each one illustrated and labelled. Left side, top to bottom: 'Playing cards', boys around a table playing cards.' Bow and Arrows' boys aiming for a target put up in a tree. 'Throwing', boys throwing a stick. Right side top to bottom: 'The dancing Pippets', a boy playing bag pipes with girls watching. 'Playing marbles', boys playing marbles. Top centre Riding the round about, children on a merry-go-round with horses. Bottom centre: Porto-Bellow, with ships and a keep on the left. Key to the image bottom left and right.
Display caption
DRAFT ENTRIES BY JILL SHEFRIN FOR THE SIX WRITING BLANKS/SCHOOL PIECES HELD BY THE MCC MUSEUM (TEXT © JILL SHEFRIN 2022):
YOUTHFUL DIVERSIONS. Published according to Act of Parlt. Octobr. 24, 1740. Sold by the Proprietor James Cole, Engraver at ye Crown in Great Kirby Street Hatton Garden. [MCC TN.2008.1894
Sheet (48 × 37 cm.) printed from a copperplate. Series no.: 73
Seven captioned images attributable to Hubert-François Gravelot illustrate juvenile’s pastimes and a recent naval battle. At head of sheet: “Riding in the Round About;” at left: “Playing with Cards [i.e. building card houses];” “Bow & Arrows ;” at right: “The Dancing Puppets;” “Playing with Marbles;” at foot: “Throwing at Cocks;” “Porto Bello Taken by Admiral Vernon 22d Novr 1739.”
Advertised in Daily Gazetter (November 12, 1740) as “playing at A New Piece, being a Continuation of the so-much-admir’d Youthful Diversions, wherein is represented their Riding in the Round-abouts, building with Cards , playing at Marbles, Bows and Arrows, the German with his dancing Puppets, and Youth throwing at Cocks. To which is added, a true Representation of Admiral Vernon’s taking Porto Bello.” A week earlier an advertisement for the same piece included this statement: “N.B. It is allow’d by all that have seen it; that one of these Pieces is worth three of those publish’d by another Hand, tho’ sold at the same Price.” (November 6, 1740). The lower left and right corners of the piece include etched text explanatory of the “Porto Bello” image: at left: “A. The Iron Castle 100 Guns;” “B. Castle Gloria 120 guns;” “C. The Town of Porto Bello;” at right: “D. Admiral Vernon;” “E. Commodore Brown;” “F. Boats sent to Land the Sailors.” The capital letters are keyed to the image of the battle.
An article in English Ceramic Circle Transactions 8:1 (1971) discusses this and another Cole piece, Youth Playing at Cricket. The Second Part of Youthful Diversions [Sxxx].
On November 12, 1740 Cole advertised to writing masters that “A New Piece, being a Continuation of the so-much admir’d Youthful Diversions” was available … where is represented their Riding in the Round-abouts, building with Cards, playing at Marbles, Bows and Arrows, the German with his dancing Puppets, and Youth throwing at Cocks. To which is added, a true Representation of Admiral Vernon’s taking of Portobello.” [See S.xxx]
Sources: R. J. Charleston and J. V. G. Mallet, “Problematical Groups of Eighteenth-century Porcelains,” English Ceramic Circle Transactions 8:1 (1971), pp.__ ; W. Ross Ramsay, Judith A. Hansen, and E. Gael Ramsay, “An ‘A-Marked’ Porcelain Covered Bowl, Cherokee Clay, and Colonial America’s Contribution to the English Porcelain Industry” in Ceramics in America (2004), pp. ___-___;
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