The Union - Whom --- Has Join'd, Let No Man put Asunder!

London: Elizabeth Darchery, 1783. Etching and engraving with hand coloring in watercolor on cream laid paper. 6 3/4 X 9 5/8 inches (170 x 244 mm), margins trimmed, image intact. Rubbing in the lower left image area obscuring the publishing information (which reads Published by Mm. Darchery, St. James Street March 11, 1783), scattered light foxing, corner loss, top left corner, well outside of image area. "SMP" collector's stamp in red ink on the verso (not in Lugt), and the name "Renier" and the initials "AR" in black ink on the verso. Colors are extremely fresh. Impressions of this work may be found in the permanent collection of the British Museum, and the Yale Center for British Art.

Ex-Collection of Anne & Ferdinand Gabriel (F.G.) Renier, reknowned for their inspriational collection of children's books and works on paper, now housed in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The devil officiates at the wedding of Tory Lord North, and Charles James Fox, the Whig statesman whose career spanned almost four decades in Parliament. The satirical scene is the signing of the Fox-North coalition, which was a short-lived partnership the two formed while combining forces in the House of Commons to oust then Prime Minister William Petty, Earl of Shelburne. Fox had fallen out of favor with the Irish born Shelburne, also a Whig, whose ministry remained in power just long enough to see the American War of Independence through to peace. Here we see the "sly" Fox accepting a gold ring from his bewildered adversary, forming an otherwise unthinkable union in an effort to double cross the head of his own political party and undermine the government.