A Scarce Libation: Bacchus, Rumfusticus Bibulus, and R. Cruikshank

by Stephen J. Gertz

Meeting of Victuallers.

 "The Publicans, as well as every other branch of the community, were aware that recent improvements in modern science had effected a Rail Road from this Earth to the Moon, in which part of the Isle of Sky Bacchus has an airy summer residence; they therefore resolved to send up by the new Steam Coach, one of the Victualler Chiefs, to invite their jovial Patron down to head their forces, and to fight their battles with their foes, The Tee-Totallers" (from the Introduction).

Steam Coachman To The Moon.

This very amusing, curious little satire is comprised of six anti-temperance drinking-songs each with an accompanying hand-colored aquatint plate by Robert Cruikshank. It appeared when the temperance movement in England began in earnest, an effort that was "a major cause for social reform  in Victorian Britain" (Rebecca Smith. The Temperance Movement and Class Struggle in  Victorian England. Loyola University).   At the time of its publication in 1841 Robert Cruikshank, who shared a "deep fraternal bond" (Patten, p. 216) with his celebrated brother, George, was already deteriorating from alcoholism. 

Bacchus At Home.

George, in the same year, contributed the etchings to John O'Niell's poem,  The Drunkard. Though not yet a committed tee-totaller, his faith in drink was shaken (not stirred), and in 1847 he committed himself to the cause of abstinence with his grim moral tale in caricature, The Bottle.

Meeting Of Tee-Totallers.

In the next year, 1848, George Cruikshank, now a temperance zealot,  produced a sequel in eight plates, The Drunkard's Children. Robert remained firmly on the side of anti-temperance.

Commencement Of Hostilities.

Regarding Robert Cruikshank, George "could not cow his brother into signing a pledge; Robert lapsed deeper and deeper into chronic alcoholism" (Patten, p. 315). He died in 1856.

Departure Of The Victualler Chief For The Combat.

The original binding for Bacchus and the Tee-Totallers was executed by Robert Riviere in green cloth with a blindstamped frame and large corner-pieces enclosing a gilt vignette by Robert Cruikshank loosely reproducing his plate, Steam Coachman to the Moon. 

"Riviere was the top of the line and this small satirical volume must have had an important backer to finance a custom Riviere binding and six aquatinted plates by Cruikshank" (Princeton University, Graphic Arts).

An important backer who did not wish to see his libations become as scarce as this book has become, a committed anti-temperance man of means.

Only one copy has come to auction since 1968. OCLC/KVK record only eight copies in institutional collections worldwide, with none, curiously, in the U.K. The Widener copy at Harvard is  partially uncolored, and two institutional copies have been rebound.

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[CRUIKSHANK, Robert]. Bacchus and the Tee-Totallers by Rumfusticus Bibulus, Esq., President of the Anti-Temperance Society. London: Sherwood, Gilbert, And Piper, 1841.

First edition. Octavo (8 1/2 x 7 1/8 in; 218 x 178 mm). 19. {1, blank] pp. Six hand-colored aquatint plates with later tissue guards loosely inserted. 

Original binding by Robert Riviere (per Princeton & Yale Universities) in green cloth with blindstamped frame and large corner-pieces enclosing a gilt vignette loosely reproducing the plate, Steam Coachman to the Moon.

Widener Collection, p. 235. Not in Abbey, Tooley, or Prideaux.
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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
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Of related interest:

Robert Cruikshank Devastates Dandies.
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The Bars of Paris, A Bar-Room in the U.S.

LEGRAND, Louis. Les Bars.
Paris: Gustave Pellet, 1908.

Louis Auguste Mathieu Legrand (1863–1951) was a French artist who worked in etchings, graphic art and paintings. Many of Legrand’s subjects were taken from Parisian nightlife, the bars, brothels, and music halls, and featured an undercurrent of eroticism. His black and white etchings provide a particular sense of decadence.

English Bar
(Arwas 389)

En passant
(Arwas 391)

Legrand  studied etching and engraving techniques with Felicien Rops, one of the few pupils of the great Belgian Symbolist, and he learned much from him but his manner of viewing men and women and life was different; Legrand had irony, wit and humor, and empathy for  the common and the socially scorned.

Aux Folies
(Arwas 386)

La Negresse
(Arwas 390)

Rops said that Legrand had “un amour extraordinaire du modele” (an extraordinary love for the sculptured) and in another remark said, “What a man, that Legrand, he would find angles in a billiard ball.”

Sportmen
(Arwas 385)

Pochard (Drunk)
(Arwas 387)

"An admirably skillful etcher, a draughtsman of keen vision, and a painter of curious character, who has in many ways forestalled the artists of to-day. Louis Legrand also shows to what extent Manet and Degas have revolutionized the art of illustration, in freeing the painters from obsolete laws and guiding them  toward  truth  and  frank  psychological  study. Legrand is full of them without resembling them.

Prince K
(Arwas 388)

Fin de soirée.
(Arwas 384).

"We must not forget that besides the technical innovation [division of tones, study of complementary colours] impression-ism has brought us novelty of composition, realism of character, and great liberty in the choice of subjects. From this point of view Rops himself, in spite of his symbolist tendencies, could not be classed with any other group if it were not that any kind of classification in art is useless and inaccurate. However that may be, Louis Legrand has signed some volumes with the most seductive qualities" (Camille Mauclair).

Au Bar
(Arwas 352)

Legrand certainly had an eye for the louche life, the languid couple below we imagine nearing the end of a long night of liquid pleasure in their corner of the bar.

Unidentified
From a folio suite of Legrand works accompanying Les Bars.

Unidentified
From a folio suite of Legrand works accompanying Les Bars.

But all things must pass, all parties must end:

Les Victimes de L'Alcool. Pathé, 1911

Blame it on those pesky, non-tippling temperance nuts in the United States who really knew how to poop a party. Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, and What I Saw There by T.S. Arthur, about the effect of ardent spirits on a man, his family, and the entire community, is now an old warhorse but was one of the most popular American novels of the 19th century. Adapted to the stage, it became an instant sensation.

ARTHUR, T[imothy].S[hay]. Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, and What I Saw There.
Philadelphia: J.W. Bradley, 1854.
First edition.

Ten Nights in a Bar-Room.Publisher's original binding.
First edition, 1854.

Mezzotint by John Sartain
From Ten Nights in a Bar-Room
First edition, 1854.

From its debut shortly after the novel was published through the rest of the 19th century it was one of the most oft-produced plays in the United States, in continuous production by someone, somewhere. into the 20th century. With the birth of the cinema it was, of course, filmed. Twice.

Ten Nights in a Bar Room
Thanhouser, 1910.

Ten Nights in a Bar Room, 1931.

 But, really, didn't they know that alcoholic beverages are medicine? I drink Health Beer. It keeps my water running, allows the spirit to take flight, is an excellent digestive ferment, and puts hair on your chest. And you?

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"
(Benjamin Franklin)

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Images from first edition of Ten Nights in a Bar-Room courtesy of Dragon Books.

Images of Les Bars from a deluxe proof set and are courtesy of Sims Reed Rare Books, part of a folio suite of over 40 original etchings by the artist which include the two unidentified (by me) works above and Au Bar.

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