La grande aiguiserie royale de poignards anglais (BM 1861,1012.168)

A French print. Pitt (right) leans forward to sharpen a dagger on a grindstone which is turned by a large wheel (left). Within the wheel George III is walking as if in a treadmill, his hands resting on the ascending curve, his tongue protruding. He is much caricatured, wears a (French) crown with plain clothes and ungartered stockings. He is 'Georges Dandin', the foolish and elderly husband, tricked by a young wife, of Molière's play. Beside Pitt and between the wheel and the grindstone are daggers and bags of gold in groups (left to right): a dagger with four bags, one inscribed 'Cordai'; a dagger with three bags, one inscribed 'Assasin Paris'; a similar group, the bag inscribed 'l'Admiral'; two daggers; a dagger longer and more ornate than the others, inscribed 'Aimée Cecile Regnault', lies across a sceptre close to a crown. Beneath the design: 'Le fameux Ministre Pitt aiguisant les Poignards avec lesquels il veut faire assassiner les défenseurs de la liberté des Peuples, le gros Georges Dandin toumant la roue et haletant de fatigue.' May 1794
Hand-coloured etching