Old Bumblehead the 18th Trying On the Napoleon Boots -- or, Preparing for the Spanish Campaign

Colored engraved caricature by and after Cruikshank; 'Louis XVIII, in a landscape suggesting the foot-hills of the Pyrenees, sits in profile to the left in a wheeled chair, vainly trying to thrust a swathed and swollen leg into a jack-boot. As he leans back, tugging with boot-hooks, his crown falls from his head. Napoleon's son, the duc de Reichstadt (ex-King of Rome), dressed in Napoleon's famous uniform of the chasseurs of the Guard, but with childish curls on his shoulders, stands behind the chair (right) raising his arms to catch the crown. He says: The Boots wont fit you Old Bourbon—I'll try them on by- & by. The King exclaims: Oh! God of St Louis assist me for tho' I have had my heels well rub'd with Bears grease yet I'm afraid I shall find it a d—d awkward job— His other gouty leg rests on a cushion, with a boot standing beside it. From the clouds on the extreme left emerges a guillotine topped by a bonnet rouge' -- British Museum Colored engraved caricature by and after Cruikshank; 'Louis XVIII, in a landscape suggesting the foot-hills of the Pyrenees, sits in profile to the left in a wheeled chair, vainly trying to thrust a swathed and swollen leg into a jack-boot. As he leans back, tugging with boot-hooks, his crown falls from his head. Napoleon's son, the duc de Reichstadt (ex-King of Rome), dressed in Napoleon's famous uniform of the chasseurs of the Guard, but with childish curls on his shoulders, stands behind the chair (right) raising his arms to catch the crown. He says: The Boots wont fit you Old Bourbon—I'll try them on by- & by. The King exclaims: Oh! God of St Louis assist me for tho' I have had my heels well rub'd with Bears grease yet I'm afraid I shall find it a d—d awkward job— His other gouty leg rests on a cushion, with a boot standing beside it. From the clouds on the extreme left emerges a guillotine topped by a bonnet rouge' -- British Museum Oblong medium folio, matted; margins trimmed; clean. Title: Old Bumblehead the 18th Trying on the Napoleon Boots-- or, Preparing for the Spanish Campaign Caption: Feb. 17. 1823 Pub. by Jno. Fairburn Broadway Ludgate Hill London Caption: Geo. Cruikshank fec