Dispersion of the Thimble Rig

Dispersion of the Thimble Rig

John Doyle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This political satire continues the theme of "The Thimble Rig, A Scene from the Derby" (2014.757.5(11)), and shows the break up of the game as Edward John Littleton picks up a small table and hurries away as the police approach. Fellow gamblers at right include Lord Russell, Thomas Spring Rice, Lord Melbourne, Lord Brougham, and Lord Althorp. Lord Edward Stanley (who famously condemed the policies of Lord Gray's administration in a parliamentary speech that compared them to a game of Thimble Rig) leads a band of policemen who include the Duke of Cumberland, Duke of Wellington, and Sir Robert Peel (the latter had established London's police force in 1829), accompanied by Daniel O'Connell.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.