Cloth casing, with a gilt device.

George Cruikshank.

1853

Elaborate gilt device and title imprinted on smooth-textured green cloth.

7½ x 5¼ inches

A mock-almanack in which the theme of time passing is proclaimed by the winged figure of Old Father Time/The Grim Reaper, who plays his scythe and hour-glass as if he were playing the fiddle: humour and mortality conflated into one, and a reminder, as in all of Cruikshank’s art, that laughter is only one step ahead of human frailty.

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Photograph and text by Simon Cooke

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