Tiddy-Doll, the Great French-Gingerbread-Baker; Drawing Out a New Batch of Kings, His Man Hopping Talley, Mixing Up the Dough

Tiddy-Doll, the Great French-Gingerbread-Baker; Drawing Out a New Batch of Kings, His Man Hopping Talley, Mixing Up the Dough

James Gillray

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gillray’s prophetic image of Napoleon as a baker feverishly creating gingerbread monarchs expresses British anxiety over the emperor’s rapid conquest of continental Europe and his evident intent to install relatives and favorites in positions of power. Freshly baked kings of Bavaria, Württemburg, and Baden are withdrawn from the oven (ready to replace rulers defeated by the French at Austerlitz in December 1805) while a cluster of "True Corsican Kinglings" (Bonaparte relatives) occupy a wicker delivery basket at left. Acting as baker’s assistant, French Foreign Minister Tallyrand kneads up Poland, Hungary and Turkey. Discarded monarchs are consigned to the oven’s ash-hole by the "Corsican Broom of Destruction." The name Gillray gave Napoleon was borrowed from Tiddy-Dol Ford, a famous London street hawker who sold gingerbread in Mayfair.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tiddy-Doll, the Great French-Gingerbread-Baker; Drawing Out a New Batch of Kings, His Man Hopping Talley, Mixing Up the DoughTiddy-Doll, the Great French-Gingerbread-Baker; Drawing Out a New Batch of Kings, His Man Hopping Talley, Mixing Up the DoughTiddy-Doll, the Great French-Gingerbread-Baker; Drawing Out a New Batch of Kings, His Man Hopping Talley, Mixing Up the DoughTiddy-Doll, the Great French-Gingerbread-Baker; Drawing Out a New Batch of Kings, His Man Hopping Talley, Mixing Up the DoughTiddy-Doll, the Great French-Gingerbread-Baker; Drawing Out a New Batch of Kings, His Man Hopping Talley, Mixing Up the Dough

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.