Object number
TN.2008.1812
Title
Youthful Diversions
Date
1738-09-20 - 1738-09-20
Creator
Material
Size
w x ht: 38.5 x 48.5 cm
Description
Border illustrated with different childrens games (seven of which are named). Highly decorative border showing 'youthful diversions', line drawings showing children playing several different games, for example 'Acting the Play of Tamerlane' top centre of the page. Mounted on wood.
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. Publishd according to Act of Parliament October the 20th 1738. And Sold by James Cole Engraver in Great Kirby Street Hatton Garden. [MCC TN.2008.1812
Sheet (48 × 37 cm.) printed from a copperplate. Series no.: (lower right) 66. Formerly in the collection of John Loraine Baldwin.
Six captioned images illustrate juvenile pastimes and contemporary soldiers. At head of sheet: “Acting the Play of Tamerlane:” at left: “Playing with birds;” “Battledore and Shuttlecock;” at right: “Flying a Kite;” “Blindmans Buff;” at foot: “A Company of Young Soldiers.”
The play of Tamerlane is a reference to Nicholas Rowe’s Tamerlane, A Tragedy (1701), which had appeared in thirty-five editions by 1835. The story was also the subject of a Handel opera (Tamerlano). At least one other play by Rowe is recorded as performed by children.
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