In the Daily Journal for May 24, 1733, we have the following advertisement:—
‘This Day is Published,
‘A Beautiful Mount for a Fan, call’d the Midnight Modern Conversation, curiously performed from that incomparable Design of that celebrated Artist the ingenious Mr. Hogarth; to which is prefixed, for the Entertainment of the Ladies, a Description of each particular Person that Gentleman hath introduced in that Night Scene. Sold at Mr. Chinavax’s great Toyshop against Suffolk-street, Charing Cross; Mr. Deard’s against St. Dunstan’s Church, Fleet Street; Mrs. Cambal in St. Martin’s Court; and by B. Dickinson at Inigo Jones’ Head against Exeter Change in the Strand, at which Place they may be had Wholesale at reasonable Rates.’
No print of this fan-mount is available for reproduction.
The victory of Admiral Vernon in his good ship the Burford at Portobello, on the 22nd November 1739, though not a particularly significant feat even with six ships of the line, was immensely popular with the masses. It was a familiar subject with the potters, especially the Staffordshire potter Astbury, who commemorated it on tea-pots, mugs, and the Portobello bowl.
The fan is not very interesting as a design, the six ships appearing to overpower the fortress, which was an old one. Five stanzas of verse appear, expressing the determination to avenge the wrongs of Britons, to support her injured trade, etc.
‘Hark, the British Cannon thunders,
See, my Lads, six Ships appear;
Every Briton acting Wonders,
Strikes the Southern World with fear.
Porto Bello, fam’d in Story,