The refurbishment (or building) of a Lock Hospital; men with various ailments are stepping out of Pandora's box; a rich, smiling, doctor drives by in a carriage. Coloured etching by T. Williamson, 1802.

  • Williamson, Thomas, active approximately 1801 - approximately 1825.
Date:
1 July 1802
Reference:
35154i
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Description

The scene depicted includes (left to right): a man beating his dog, a coffin carried by pall bearers, a man being tapped for dropsy, a fat man on crutches, a Scotsman scratching himself, a man urinating, an excessively thin man with a cane, a man with no nose and swollen joints, a chained lunatic, a blind soldier with one leg and a prone man in a fit (or dead)

The mediaeval Lock Hospitals, of which there were several in London, originally treated lepers, but by the time this print was made were taking in sufferers from venereal disease

Publication/Creation

[London] (No. 20 Strand) : T. Williamson, 1 July 1802.

Physical description

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; image 19.4 x 38.2 cm

Lettering

The opening of Pandora's box Lettering in the print includes: "Locke Hospital AD 1802" ; "Solomon's guide to health ... beware of counterfeits" ; "House of Gentle Correction" "Leake's justly f<amous>" Pandora ("all gifts"), in Greek mythology, was given a box or urn, as a wedding gift, containing all the miseries of the world. Jupiter thus gained his revenge on mankind for Prometheus's theft of fire

References note

Not found in: British Museum Catalogue of political and personal satires, London 1870-1954

Reference

Wellcome Collection 35154i

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