The Bottle: Plate IV. Unable To Find Employment...designed and etched by George Cruikshank and published by David Bogue

This black and white etching is fourth of eight scenes drawn by George Cruikshank depicting the progressive degeneration of a family due to the evils of drinking. This print depicts a mother, father and older daughter standing outside a wine and spirits shop while the barefoot son begs a mother with her two children for alms in the street. The grief-stricken mother holds an ailing baby while the father determinedly pockets a bottle of liquor and another little girl inside the store grabs for a bottle. In the background is a cemetery foretelling a sad future. This series is a folio edition. On the reverse of Plate I. is the title page of the series and an inscription from the artist, including the cost of one shilling or six shillings for prints block tinted for shading on finer paper. The series is contained in a portfolio.

This series of prints is by the English artist George Cruikshank (1792-1878). Cruikshank’s father, Isaac Cruikshank, was an artist who specialized in song sheets and caricatures and trained George and his brother Robert Cruikshank in these arts. George started as a caricaturist for magazines and children’s books. His most famous works included The Bottle and The Drunkard’s Children, designed and etched by Cruikshank to show the wickedness of alcohol. Cruikshank's father and brother were both alcoholics and he himself drank heavily until he took a vow of abstinence in 1847. These prints were published by David Bogue, who published most of Cruikshank’s works in the 1850s. David Bogue (1807–1856) was born in Scotland and moved to London in 1836. Bogue began working in Charles Tilt's bookshop as a publisher and bookseller in 1836 and became Tilt's partner in 1840. Bogue bought the shop in 1843. He was the principle publisher of Cruikshank’s short-lived periodicals, brief illustrated stories, and the Comic Almanack 1835-53. David Bogue published The Bottle series in 1847. Bogue suffered from heart disease and died in 1856 at the age of 48.

Currently not on view