"February"

Watercolour by Robert Dighton, 1785

It’s the 1780s

Top:  1780-1783 Anna Teofila Potocka by Marcello Bacciarelli (The Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw). From tumblr.com/blog/view/sims4rococo76/675282695253884928 2048X2689 @72 1.3Mj.

Second row left:  1780s Calendar art for February. From tumblr.com/blog/view/sims4rococo76/675282695253884928 750X1063 @72 321kj.

Second row right:  Calendar art for April. From tumblr.com/blog/view/antiquelaceartist 750X1063 @72 304kj.

Third row:  ca. 1785 Fashion Plate (September) by Robert Dighton (V&A). From tumblr.com/blog/view/silverfoxstole 1916X2500 @72 1.2Mj.

Fourth row:  ca. 1785 The Saithwaite Family by Francis Wheatley (Metropolitan Museum of Art). From their Web site 3790X3005 @150 2.9Mj.

Fifth row left:  1785 Maria J. Hoos by Nicolas Joseph Delin (Museum De Lakenhal - Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands). From tumblr.com/blog/view/andrayblue 2048X2256 @72 989kj.

Fifth row right:  ca. 1787 The Mockery by Louis-Léopold Boilly (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art - Hartford, Connecticut, USA). From tumblr.com/blog/view/history-of-fashion 1273X1538 @72 626kj. Mildly cropped.

Bottom:  1787 A Milliners Shop by S. F. Fores. From sfcdyer.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/a-milliners-shop-in-1787/ 1781X1400 @400 891kj. The woman in the center wearing a yellow dress is supposed to be Queen Charlotte.

I do not wonder at my poor father's senses being dazzled, for, as he said to me, "You see, Jack, after being used to see nothing but Point women, all so slack in stays and their rigging out of order, to fall aboard of a craft like your mother, so trim and neat, ropes all taut, stays well set up, white hammock cloths spread every day in the week, and when under weigh, with a shawl streaming out like a silk ensign, and such a rakish gaff topsail bonnet, with pink pennants; why, it was for all the world as if I was keeping company with a tight little frigate after rolling down channel with a fleet of colliers: but howsomever, fine feathers don't make fine birds, and handsome is, as handsome does."

— Frederick Marryat, Poor Jack

A Man of War, towing a Frigate into Harbour, 1781 print after Robert Dighton.

December, Robert Dighton, England, c. 1785

In "Kind Hearts and Coronets": Alec Guinness has fun playing all eight of the unfortunate D'Ascoynes, including Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne.

Death and Life Contrasted by Robert Dighton, 1784. British Museum

Aquatint of well-heeled bad boys Tom & Bob "Catching a Charley Napping" from Real Life in London; or, the Rambles of Bob Tallyho, Esq. and his Cousin the Hon. Tom Dashall &c. through the Metropolis; Exhibiting a Living Picture of Fashionable Characters, Manners, and Amusements in High and Low Life by an Amateur, illustrated by by Messrs Heath, Aiken, Dighton, Brooke, Rowlandson, &c.

This was a knockoff publication plagiarizing characters from the hugely popular Life in London; or, The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis by Pierce Egan, illustrated by George and Robert Cruikshank, 1821.

See above the frontispiece from the 1823 edition of Egan's Life in London and the corresponding Finish to the Adventures of Tom, Jerry, and Logic, 1871 edition (originally published 1829). And check out the cheery row of dancing grim reaper charleys—night watchmen—at the bottom, having got the last laugh after all.

I could not find Life in London available to read online, but Gutenberg has Real Life in London (1905 edition, confusingly attributed to both Egan and the wonderfully named John Badcock—though Gutenberg notes that the actual authorship is uncertain).

I leave you with "Jerry's admiration of Tom in an 'Assault' with Mr. O'Shaunessy, at the Rooms in St James's St."

A man, half human and half skeleton. Coloured etching by R. Dighton, 1780

Dighton, Robert, 1752-1814.

Wellcome Collection

Macaroni: Caricatures vs. Portraits

The Fly Catching Macaroni - Sir Joseph Banks

[Left: The Fly Catching Macaroni, print, c. 1772, by Matthew Darly, via Yale University Library.

Right: Sir Joseph Banks, oil on canvas, c. 1771-1773, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, via Wikimedia.]

The Macaroni Painter - Richard Cosway

[Left: The Macaroni Painter, print, c. 1772, by Richard Earlom after a drawing by Robert Dighton, via The British Museum.

Right: Detail of The Academicians of the Royal Academy, oil on canvas, c. 1771-72, by Johan Zoffany, via The Royal Collection Trust.]

The Eclipse Macarony - Colonel Dennis O’Kelly

[Left: The Eclipse Macarony, print, c. 1773, by Matthew Darly, via The British Museum.

Right: Colonel Dennis O’Kelly, before 1787, by Johann Zoffany, via Illustrated London News, 4th June 1932.]

The Illiterate Macaroni - Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk

[Left: The Illiterate Macaroni, print, c. 1772, by Matthew Darly, via The British Museum.

Right: Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk, oil on canvas, c. 1770, by Joshua Reynolds, via Wikimedia]

Charles James Cub (The Original Macaroni) - Charles James Fox

[Left: Charles James Cub Esqr., print, c. 1771, by anonymous, via The British Museum.

Right: Charles James Fox, oil on canvas, c. unknown, by Benjamin Wilson, via Bonhams.]

"Le Retour de Louis XVI à Paris" dessin de Robert Dighton (1789) présenté à l'exposition “Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette & la Révolution. La Famille Royale aux Tuileries (1789-1792)”, Hôtel de Soubise, Le Marais, Paris, avril 2023.

Dennis Price and Joan Greenwood in Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)

Cast: Dennis Price, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, Alec Guinness, Audrey Fildes, Miles Malleson, Clive Morton, John Penrose, Hugh Griffith. Screenplay: Robert Hamer, John Dighton, based on a novel by Roy Horniman. Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe. Art direction: William Kellner. Film editing: Peter Tanner. Costume design: Anthony Mendleson. Music: Ernest Irving.

Kind Hearts and Coronets is best known for Alec Guinness's tour de force as the entire D'Ascoyne family, but that's hardly the greatest of pleasures the film affords. Dennis Price's performance as the suavely lethal Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini is as much a demonstration of how to act sophisticated comedy as one could wish, and who can resist Joan Greenwood as Sibella, especially in hats that seem to contain an entire florist's shop? It evokes her definitive Gwendolen Fairfax in Anthony Asquith's 1952 filming of The Importance of Being Earnest. In fact, Oscar Wilde's play is the essential background reference for Robert Hamer's screenplay -- it apparently also influenced the novel on which the film is based -- and you hear Wilde's voice in such lines as Mazzini's "It is so difficult to make a neat job of killing people with whom one is not on friendly terms." Hamer's staging also provides the necessary distancing from Mazzini's murders, as in the scene in which he offs Young Henry D'Ascoyne (Guinness): While Mazzini is taking tea with Edith (Valerie Hobson) in the garden we hear a whump that neither character acknowledges as Henry's darkroom explodes with him in it. Then smoke begins to arise beyond the garden wall, and Mazzini comments that someone must be burning leaves. Not this time of year, Edith replies, and Mazzini rushes off to "investigate" what he knows has happened. Kind Hearts and Coronets seems to me the best of all the classic British comedies of the late 1940s and the 1950s.

"April", watercolour by Robert Dighton, 1785

Members of the cast, the director and writer of MGM's "The Swan" are shown during a script reading and discussion in 1955: (far left, clockwise) Brian Aherne, Robert Coots, Alec Guiness, Estelle Windwood, Director Charles Vidor, Screen Writer John Dighton, Leo G. Carroll, Jessie Royce Landis, Grace Kelly, Louis Jourdan, Van Dyke Parks and Christopher Cook.

On this day in Wikipedia: Friday, 5th January

Welcome, laipni lūdzam, merħba, ласкаво просимо (laskavo prosymo) 🤗 What does @Wikipedia say about 5th January through the years 🏛️📜🗓️?

5th January 2022 🗓️ : Event - Kassym-Jomart Tokayev Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismisses Prime Minister Asqar Mamin and declares state of emergency over the 2022 Kazakh unrest. "Kassym-Jomart Kemeluly Tokayev (Kazakh: Қасым-Жомарт Кемелұлы Тоқаев, romanized: Qasym-Jomart Kemelūly Toqaev [qɑˈsəm ʑoˈmɑrt kʲeˌmʲelo̙ɫɯ toˈqɑjef]; born 17 May 1953) is a Kazakh politician and diplomat who has served as the President of Kazakhstan since 2019. Between 20 March and 12 June 2019, he..."

Image licensed under CC BY 4.0? by Unknown authorUnknown author

5th January 2019 🗓️ : Death - Dragoslav Šekularac Dragoslav Šekularac, Serbian footballer and manager (b. 1937) "Dragoslav Šekularac (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгослав Шекуларац, pronounced [drǎgoslaʋ ʃekulârats]; 8 November 1937 – 5 January 2019) was a Serbian professional footballer and coach. Nicknamed Šeki, he was quick and crafty with the ball, displaying creative skills which turned many heads. Possessing..."

Image licensed under CC BY 2.0? by Vujcic

5th January 2014 🗓️ : Event - GSAT-14 A launch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the GSLV MK.II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic engine. "GSAT-14 is an Indian communications satellite launched in January 2014. It replaced the GSAT-3 satellite, which was launched in 2004. GSAT-14 was launched by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk.II, which incorporated an Indian-built cryogenic engine on the third stage...."

5th January 1974 🗓️ : Birth - Jessica Chaffin Jessica Chaffin, American actress, comedian, and writer "Jessica Chaffin is an American actress, comedian, and writer best known as part of the comedy duo Ronna and Beverly with Jamie Denbo. She is also known for her recurring roles as Coco Wexler on Nickelodeon's Zoey 101, Marie Faldonado in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan and appearing in the films Spy..."

5th January 1923 🗓️ : Birth - Sam Phillips Sam Phillips, American radio host and producer, founded Sun Records (d. 2003) "Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Howlin' Wolf. Phillips..."

5th January 1823 🗓️ : Death - George Johnston (British Marines officer) George Johnston, Scottish-Australian colonel and politician, Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales (b. 1764) "Lieutenant-Colonel George Johnston (19 March 1764 – 5 January 1823) was a British military officer who served as Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, Australia after leading the rebellion later known as the Rum Rebellion. After serving as a young marine officer in the American Revolutionary War,..."

Image by Robert Dighton

5th January 🗓️ : Holiday - Christian Feast day: John Neumann (Catholic Church) "John Nepomucene Neumann (German: Johann Nepomuk Neumann, Czech: Jan Nepomucký Neumann; March 28, 1811 – January 5, 1860) was a Catholic immigrant from Bohemia. He came to the United States in 1836, where he was ordained, joined the Redemptorist order, and became the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia in..."

Image by Unknown authorUnknown author

Marryat wrote, originally, for fun. He found he was a born writer. Later, he needed money badly, and was constrained to turn the jaunt into a grind: but of literary solemnity he was innocent. He was indeed, 'non-pompous', as a sailor the worse for liquor is described in Poor Jack.

— Oliver Warner, Captain Marryat: A Rediscovery

'Men of War, bound for the Port of Pleasure': 1791 mezzotint after Robert Dighton.

It was quite possible for a good man pressed at sea to step straight into a petty officer's berth, or even straight onto the quarter deck. Pressed men rated midshipmen, or given warrants, were not unknown, and there was nothing to stop a pressed man rising as high in the Service as any other. The ship which manned a press tender generally kept the men she raised—if good, as an incentive, if bad, as a punishment. The good men were worth keeping, so it was worth rating a good man as highly as he deserved, lest he find means to go elsewhere. John Stevens, mate of the Neptune snow, was pressed in 1755 because of some ill-timed abuse of the press officer by her master. He petitioned either for his discharge, or to be allowed to serve in the Elizabeth whose captain offered to rate him midshipman.

— Nicholas A. M. Rodger, The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy

'The Banks of the Shannon': 1787 print by Robert Dighton, showing a youth seized by a press gang bidding farewell to his sweetheart.