The British Museum have Boitard’s original pen and ink wash design of this print.
A fine engraving satirising the vogue in England for French luxury good. Hundreds of ships are show at the Custom House Quay on the north bank of the Thames unloading French cargo including claret, burgundy and champagne as well as cheese from Normandy and perfume. In addition numerous people are also disembarking from the ship including dancing masters, tailors, hairdressers, doctors and various religious figures.
This very fine engraving pokes fun at the English desire to sample French goods such as wine and cheese but also attests to the popularity of supposedly refined French pursuits such as dancing that fascinated English audiences in the 18th-century. The satire widens to attack other supposed French imports such as “disguis’d Jesuits”, doctors and valets.
The explanation below the prints notes, “several emaciated high liv’d Epicures, familiarly receiving a French Cook, acquainting him that without his assistance they must have perish’d with hunger”
The extra irony of this print is that it was designed and engraved by Louis Philippe Boitard (1733-1767fl), a French-born print maker who moved to London at the beginning of the 18th-century. “His social satires are lively and interesting, preoccupied with a critique of luxury, the consumption of French goods, and the riotous confrontation of poverty with affluence.” (ODNB).
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