Anon. Dot & Line Pinmen Caricatures (Dottator et Lineator Loquitor)

An original c.1817 pen & ink drawing – Dot & Line Pinmen Caricatures (Dottator et Lineator Loquitor).

A marvellous sheet of hand-drawn Regency 'dot and line' caricatures. The 'pinmen' embody a host of actions and poses, including dance moves of the period, 'How d'ye do', 'Farewell' and 'Fainting'.

English caricaturist George Moutard Woodward is generally credited with inspiring the modern 'pinmen' genre with his 'Multum in Parvo, or Lilliputian Sketches' at the beginning of the 19th century. The genre went on to become very popular in the Regency period, with publishers across London turning out prints of comically expressive pinmen, most famously by George Cruikshank (1792–1878). Poses would include hunting, riding, boating, dancing and acting Shakespeare. In 1817, Rudolph Ackermann's Repository of Arts published one such drawing with the satirical poem, 'Dottator et Lineator Loquitur, from the perspective of an exultant caricaturist: I know that I can do much more / Than artists ever did before; / With but a DOT, and eke a LINE, / In ev'ry shape and act I'll shine.'

In pen and ink on laid paper with seated Britannia watermark. The sheet is horizontally folded into four and is affixed to a strip of backing paper at the upper edge.

Please note that the artwork will ship folded.