A Story of Deception
A selection of hoaxes and swindlers- everything from giving birth to rabbits to raising funds for non-existent countries.
The Irish writer Richard Head (c.1637-1686?) wrote a fictional autobiography of a professional thief, The English Rogue (1665), to supplement his income (and finance his passion for gambling). But he is not included here for his imaginative gifts so much as the likelihood that he went into hiding to escape arrest due to the adventures 'considered indecent' in his original manuscript, and the 'unblushing plagiary' remaining in the expurgated version. Nonetheless, the first edition sold out within a year, and by 1667 it had reached a fifth edition!
Richard Head. The Globe's thy Studye; for thy boundless mind... I.F.
Published 1795 by I. Caulfield.
Engraving, 19th century copy of the frontispiece to Head's 'The English Rogue', 160 x 95mm. 6¼ x 3¾". Laid to card.
Portrait of Richard Head (1637? - 1686?), author, born in Ireland.
Ex Collection Norman Blackburn.
[Ref: 18489] £65.00 (£78.00 incl.VAT)
Maybe it's unfair to include John Law (1671?-1729), architect of the Mississippi Scheme (one of the earliest economic bubbles), in this post. After all, he has been described as 'in the front rank of monetary theorists of all times' (Joseph A. Schumpeter):
John Law, Projector of the Mississippi Scheme.
Engraved by W. Greatbach, from a rare Print by Leon Schenk (1720)
London: Published by Richard Bentley, 1841.
Mixed-method engraving. Plate 222 x 140mm. 8¾ x 5½". Some spotting.
John Law (1671-1729) was a Scottish economist and was appointed Controller General of Finances of France under King Louis XIV.
See [for later impression:] NPG: D12274.
[Ref: 16603] £50.00 (£60.00 incl.VAT)
But then, he was convicted of murder and escaped from prison before fleeing to France (never a good thing for a finance minister to have on their CV), and this satire, which shows Diogenes visiting France looking for an honest man and horrified at what he sees, leaves one in no doubt as to one printmakers' opinions:
Veritable Portrait du tres fameux Seigneur messire Quinquenpoix. No.1 Of Stront Of Koning.
[n.d., c.1720.]
Total printed area 220 x 320mm, 8¾ x 12½".
Satirical portrait of Scot John Law, holding a purse, with a cauldron with money and shares thrown in by various people underneath.
[Ref: 12943] £60.00 (£72.00 incl.VAT)
Law and Head may have misled people, but they were not in the same league as Bampfylde Carew, who was essentially a professional swindler, as detailed in his memoirs The life and adventures of Bamfylde Moore Carew, the noted Devonshire stroller and dogstealer (1745) which relate an astonishing variety of subterfuges (although how much is actually true is open to debate):
Mr. Bampfylde Moore Carew, King of the Beggars.
[n.d. c.1770].
Engraving. Sheet 280 x 215mm. Trimmed inside plate mark.
Bampfylde Moore Carew [1693 - 1759] was a rogue and imposter.
[Ref: 154] £180.00 (£216.00 incl.VAT)
The French diplomat and spy, the Chevalier d'Eon (1728-1810), donned female attire in order to escape: he had previously been successful as a woman- he claimed that in 1755 he attended a ball at Versailles dressed as a woman and, briefly revealing his masculinity, had seduced Madame de Pompadour! Living in London, D'Eon published correspondence which led to him being sued for libel. D'Eon failed to turn up at court, was found guilty by default, and outlawed. He disguised himself and hid at Byfleet, Surrey. This double portrait shows him in military, and female attire:
[A pair of portraits of the Chevalier d'Eon]
Dessine d'apres Nature en 1779 et Grave par J.B. Bradel. [&] Dessine et Grave par JB. Bradel, d'apres nature et les Originaux communiques par Mademoiselle d'Eon a ce Seul Artiste.
[Paris: Desprez, c.1780.]
Pair of rare engravings, large margins to female portrait, printed borders c.310 x 210mm. 12¼ x 8¼".
[Ref: 26815] £950
'In August of 1726 Mary miscarried. On 27 September 1726 Mary, he husband, and her mother-in-law cut up a cat, removed its innards, inserted the backbone of an eel into the cat's intestines, and placed the creation into Mary's reproductive tract' (DNB). Thus begins the strange case of 'rabbit-breeder' Mary Toft, who 'had been delivered of a total of seventeen rabbits' before she was charged as a 'notorious and vile cheat' and sent to Bridewell prison (DNB):
Mary Tofts, (The Pretended Rabbit Breeder.)
[Painted by John Laguerre.] Maddocks sculp.t
[n.d. c.1815.]
Stipple. 230 x 139mm. 9 x 5½".
Mary Tofts (1701-1763) was an English woman from Godalming, Surrey, who in 1726 became the subject of considerable controversy when she professed that she had given birth to rabbits.
[Ref: 18959] £45.00 (£54.00 incl.VAT)
Also implicated in the affair was the anatomist and surgeon Nathaniel St André (1679/80-1776) who, after delivering Toft's fifteenth rabbit, became a 'true believer' in her, brought her to London and orchestrated public viewings of her, and published A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets in which he claimed the births to be genuine. After Toft confessed to the hoax, St André said he had been duped. He can be seen in the background of this satirical print, carrying a rabbit under his arm:
Major G****n & Lady landing at Southampton in Cripples walk
[W. Austin]
Pubd as the Act Directs May 1st 1773
Engraving, rare, 270 x 375mm. 10½ x 14½".
Scene at Southampton.
[Ref: 18916] £290
Ann Moore (b.1761) was also known as 'the fasting woman of Tutbury' for her ability to survive for long periods without food. A sixteen-day watch was organized to test her abstinence in 1808, and in 1812 this portrait of her was published:
Ann Moore, The Fasting Woman Of Tutbury. Aged 59 Years.
Drawn from Life by Cors. Linsell. Engraved by Anthy. Cardon.
Published by Moseley & Tunnicliffe, Derby, 1812. [Hand written] - Proof and intialled "CL"?
Stipple engraving, india proof with uncut full margins, 300 x 378mm, 15 x 12 inches.
[Ref: 14784] £280
The following year, in 1813, a second watch was organized, as a result of which she 'confessed to perpetuating a fraud, signing her confession with a cross' (DNB).
'El General Mac Gregor' as he is titled on his portrait, was the Scottish soldier and adventurer Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845):
El General MacGregor.
Painted by J.S.Rochard. Engraved by S.W.Reynolds Bayswater.
[n.d. c.1825.]
Mezzotint. 360 x 265mm. Split through printed frame taped.
Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845), a Scottish adventurer who fought in the South American struggle for independence. Upon his return to England in 1820, he claimed to be cazique of Poyais, a fictional Central American country he invented. He ran several schemes to raise money to colonise his country, but when colonists arrived there they found not the opera house they were expecting, but just old ruins. MacGregor managed to avoid any charges for his frauds, and retired to Venezuela to write his autobiography.
[Ref: 5047] £160.00 (£192.00 incl.VAT)
During several years in South America, MacGregor became close to Simon Bolivar (and married his niece) before he was disowned by El Libertador. He obtained a land grant in what is now Honduras, returned to England, and called himself Gregor I, cacique of Poyais (the name of his fictional country). MacGregor had a respectable banker manage a loan for Poyais and sold commissions in the non-existent Poyaisian army, lying all the time about the riches of Poyais (in fact it was just jungles and swamps). At least two hundred British sailed to 'Poyais', where the would have died were it not for a rescue mission from British Honduras.
MacGregor, who had grossed over £50,000 before his fraud was discovered, moved to France, where he sold Poyaisian land and was subsequently imprisoned for fraud. This satire shows him in jail:
Poyais Royalty in Quad...
[by William Heath, published by Fairburn 1827]
coloured etching, platemark 36 x 25cm
£240
MacGregor was acquitted, however, and returned to London where he continued to sell Poyais land grants before retiring to Venezuela!
'Samuel Alfred Warner (1793/4-1853), charlatan' as the DNB has it, organised an 'experiment' in Brighton on July 20 1844, to commemorate which this lithograph was published:
Captain Warner's Experiment...
Day & Haghe Lith to the Queen. R. H. Nibbs.
Published by W. H. Mason, Printseller & Publisher to the Queen, Repository of Arts, 81 Kings Road Brighton, July 27th 1844. ___ London, Ackermann and Compy.
Tinted lithograph. 250 x 350mm image.
[Ref: 4407] £420
The experiment was organized to demonstrate the success of Warner's 'invisible shell' (apparently a sort of submerged mine), which he had tried to sell to the British government, by blowing up a target vessel at sea. Although he held several such 'demonstrations' for politicians and the public, Warne refused to disclose any information about his inventions without first receiving payment of £200,000. The payment was never made and he died suddenly in 1853, leaving his seven children destitute. The DNB compliments him by saying that 'few imposters have... succeeded in playing successive governments on such a slender line for more than twenty years'. If his profession was that of a charlatan, he was clearly pretty good at it.
The Irish writer Richard Head (c.1637-1686?) wrote a fictional autobiography of a professional thief, The English Rogue (1665), to supplement his income (and finance his passion for gambling). But he is not included here for his imaginative gifts so much as the likelihood that he went into hiding to escape arrest due to the adventures 'considered indecent' in his original manuscript, and the 'unblushing plagiary' remaining in the expurgated version. Nonetheless, the first edition sold out within a year, and by 1667 it had reached a fifth edition!
Published 1795 by I. Caulfield.
Engraving, 19th century copy of the frontispiece to Head's 'The English Rogue', 160 x 95mm. 6¼ x 3¾". Laid to card.
Portrait of Richard Head (1637? - 1686?), author, born in Ireland.
Ex Collection Norman Blackburn.
[Ref: 18489] £65.00 (£78.00 incl.VAT)
Maybe it's unfair to include John Law (1671?-1729), architect of the Mississippi Scheme (one of the earliest economic bubbles), in this post. After all, he has been described as 'in the front rank of monetary theorists of all times' (Joseph A. Schumpeter):
Engraved by W. Greatbach, from a rare Print by Leon Schenk (1720)
London: Published by Richard Bentley, 1841.
Mixed-method engraving. Plate 222 x 140mm. 8¾ x 5½". Some spotting.
John Law (1671-1729) was a Scottish economist and was appointed Controller General of Finances of France under King Louis XIV.
See [for later impression:] NPG: D12274.
[Ref: 16603] £50.00 (£60.00 incl.VAT)
But then, he was convicted of murder and escaped from prison before fleeing to France (never a good thing for a finance minister to have on their CV), and this satire, which shows Diogenes visiting France looking for an honest man and horrified at what he sees, leaves one in no doubt as to one printmakers' opinions:
[n.d., c.1720.]
Total printed area 220 x 320mm, 8¾ x 12½".
Satirical portrait of Scot John Law, holding a purse, with a cauldron with money and shares thrown in by various people underneath.
[Ref: 12943] £60.00 (£72.00 incl.VAT)
Law and Head may have misled people, but they were not in the same league as Bampfylde Carew, who was essentially a professional swindler, as detailed in his memoirs The life and adventures of Bamfylde Moore Carew, the noted Devonshire stroller and dogstealer (1745) which relate an astonishing variety of subterfuges (although how much is actually true is open to debate):
[n.d. c.1770].
Engraving. Sheet 280 x 215mm. Trimmed inside plate mark.
Bampfylde Moore Carew [1693 - 1759] was a rogue and imposter.
[Ref: 154] £180.00 (£216.00 incl.VAT)
The French diplomat and spy, the Chevalier d'Eon (1728-1810), donned female attire in order to escape: he had previously been successful as a woman- he claimed that in 1755 he attended a ball at Versailles dressed as a woman and, briefly revealing his masculinity, had seduced Madame de Pompadour! Living in London, D'Eon published correspondence which led to him being sued for libel. D'Eon failed to turn up at court, was found guilty by default, and outlawed. He disguised himself and hid at Byfleet, Surrey. This double portrait shows him in military, and female attire:
Dessine d'apres Nature en 1779 et Grave par J.B. Bradel. [&] Dessine et Grave par JB. Bradel, d'apres nature et les Originaux communiques par Mademoiselle d'Eon a ce Seul Artiste.
[Paris: Desprez, c.1780.]
Pair of rare engravings, large margins to female portrait, printed borders c.310 x 210mm. 12¼ x 8¼".
[Ref: 26815] £950
'In August of 1726 Mary miscarried. On 27 September 1726 Mary, he husband, and her mother-in-law cut up a cat, removed its innards, inserted the backbone of an eel into the cat's intestines, and placed the creation into Mary's reproductive tract' (DNB). Thus begins the strange case of 'rabbit-breeder' Mary Toft, who 'had been delivered of a total of seventeen rabbits' before she was charged as a 'notorious and vile cheat' and sent to Bridewell prison (DNB):
[Painted by John Laguerre.] Maddocks sculp.t
[n.d. c.1815.]
Stipple. 230 x 139mm. 9 x 5½".
Mary Tofts (1701-1763) was an English woman from Godalming, Surrey, who in 1726 became the subject of considerable controversy when she professed that she had given birth to rabbits.
[Ref: 18959] £45.00 (£54.00 incl.VAT)
Also implicated in the affair was the anatomist and surgeon Nathaniel St André (1679/80-1776) who, after delivering Toft's fifteenth rabbit, became a 'true believer' in her, brought her to London and orchestrated public viewings of her, and published A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets in which he claimed the births to be genuine. After Toft confessed to the hoax, St André said he had been duped. He can be seen in the background of this satirical print, carrying a rabbit under his arm:
[W. Austin]
Pubd as the Act Directs May 1st 1773
Engraving, rare, 270 x 375mm. 10½ x 14½".
Scene at Southampton.
[Ref: 18916] £290
Ann Moore (b.1761) was also known as 'the fasting woman of Tutbury' for her ability to survive for long periods without food. A sixteen-day watch was organized to test her abstinence in 1808, and in 1812 this portrait of her was published:
Drawn from Life by Cors. Linsell. Engraved by Anthy. Cardon.
Published by Moseley & Tunnicliffe, Derby, 1812. [Hand written] - Proof and intialled "CL"?
Stipple engraving, india proof with uncut full margins, 300 x 378mm, 15 x 12 inches.
[Ref: 14784] £280
The following year, in 1813, a second watch was organized, as a result of which she 'confessed to perpetuating a fraud, signing her confession with a cross' (DNB).
'El General Mac Gregor' as he is titled on his portrait, was the Scottish soldier and adventurer Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845):
Painted by J.S.Rochard. Engraved by S.W.Reynolds Bayswater.
[n.d. c.1825.]
Mezzotint. 360 x 265mm. Split through printed frame taped.
Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845), a Scottish adventurer who fought in the South American struggle for independence. Upon his return to England in 1820, he claimed to be cazique of Poyais, a fictional Central American country he invented. He ran several schemes to raise money to colonise his country, but when colonists arrived there they found not the opera house they were expecting, but just old ruins. MacGregor managed to avoid any charges for his frauds, and retired to Venezuela to write his autobiography.
[Ref: 5047] £160.00 (£192.00 incl.VAT)
During several years in South America, MacGregor became close to Simon Bolivar (and married his niece) before he was disowned by El Libertador. He obtained a land grant in what is now Honduras, returned to England, and called himself Gregor I, cacique of Poyais (the name of his fictional country). MacGregor had a respectable banker manage a loan for Poyais and sold commissions in the non-existent Poyaisian army, lying all the time about the riches of Poyais (in fact it was just jungles and swamps). At least two hundred British sailed to 'Poyais', where the would have died were it not for a rescue mission from British Honduras.
MacGregor, who had grossed over £50,000 before his fraud was discovered, moved to France, where he sold Poyaisian land and was subsequently imprisoned for fraud. This satire shows him in jail:
[by William Heath, published by Fairburn 1827]
coloured etching, platemark 36 x 25cm
£240
MacGregor was acquitted, however, and returned to London where he continued to sell Poyais land grants before retiring to Venezuela!
'Samuel Alfred Warner (1793/4-1853), charlatan' as the DNB has it, organised an 'experiment' in Brighton on July 20 1844, to commemorate which this lithograph was published:
Day & Haghe Lith to the Queen. R. H. Nibbs.
Published by W. H. Mason, Printseller & Publisher to the Queen, Repository of Arts, 81 Kings Road Brighton, July 27th 1844. ___ London, Ackermann and Compy.
Tinted lithograph. 250 x 350mm image.
[Ref: 4407] £420
The experiment was organized to demonstrate the success of Warner's 'invisible shell' (apparently a sort of submerged mine), which he had tried to sell to the British government, by blowing up a target vessel at sea. Although he held several such 'demonstrations' for politicians and the public, Warne refused to disclose any information about his inventions without first receiving payment of £200,000. The payment was never made and he died suddenly in 1853, leaving his seven children destitute. The DNB compliments him by saying that 'few imposters have... succeeded in playing successive governments on such a slender line for more than twenty years'. If his profession was that of a charlatan, he was clearly pretty good at it.
