There are two examples of this print in the British Museum catalogue (one coloured and the other not). There are also examples at the V&A and the Library of Congress.
A satire on the English fascination with Napoleonic relics.
After Napoleon’s capture in July 1815 his carriage was seized with the Monthly Magazine noting how it was: “taken by the Prussians, sold to Government, and re-sold, or lent to Mr Bullock as a Prussian trophy with which to amuse John Bull, under the sufferings which the acquisition has cost him…Mr Bullock’s rooms are constantly filled with company and at least a hundred thousand persons have already gratified themselves by sitting in the very chariot which once held Napoleon le Grand.”
This print shows English visitors to Bullock’s Museum literally crawling all over the carriage and pushing other visitors out of the way to get inside. Three ladies stood to the left of the carriage clutch some white material while a gentleman tells them, “This is one of Napoleon’s shirts…”
William Bullock (bap.1773-d.1849) grew up in a family which operated a travelling exhibition of wax works. William ran various museums before eventually taking over the Egyptian Hall building in Piccadilly in 1812 where he opened his popular and lucrative London Museum. Bullock is said to have made £350,000 from selling tickets to see the carriage.
Another print, Exhibition at Bullock’s Museum of Bonaparte’s Carriage Taken at Waterloo (Thomas Rowlandson, January, 1816) shows a similar scene at Bullock’s Museum but from a reversed angle.
