Etching after the drawing by T. West, with original colour (plus later addition). Published by SW Fores, 50 Piccadilly, 13 June 1803.
Image size 350mm x 250mm, including all margins.
In generally good condition, a few small nicks and tears to extremities, mended with acid free tape. A manuscript addition of a previous owner, 'Atchuley' at lower right. Bonaparte's bare bottom has at some time been deliberately obscured using blue paint.
This caricature was published just less than a month after the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens, (March 1802 - May 1803). Britannia birches Napoleon with a rod tied with a ribbon reading 'United Kingdom', saying, "There take that and that and that, and be carefull not to provoke my Anger more." Bonaparte replies: "oh forgive me this time and I never will do so again, oh dear! oh dear! you'll entirely spoil the Honors of the Sitting." Originally, before a prudish hand obscured it using thick blue paint, the weals on his bottom were quite evident. On a cliff on which a small British lion lies on a scroll inscribed: 'Qui uti scit ei bona' ['good things to him who knows how to use them']. In the distance the French fleet are seen retreating.
