APPENDIX.
BONNELL THORNTON’S SIGNBOARD EXHIBITION.

On the evening of Tuesday, 23d of March 1762, the ladies and gentlemen of London were informed at their tea-tables, by means of the St James’s Chronicle, of the following fact:—

“Proscript.”

INTELLIGENCE EXTRAORDINARY.

“Strand. The Society of Manufactures, Art, and Commerce, are preparing for the annual Exhibition of Polite Arts, hoping by Degrees to render this Nation as eminent in Taste as War; and that, by bestowing Præmiums, and encouraging a generous Emulation, among the Artists, the Productions of Painting, Sculpture, &c., may no longer be considered as Exotics, but naturally flourish in the Soil of Great Britain.”

Immediately under this notice was the following:—

“Grand Exhibition. The Society of Sign-painters are also preparing a most magnificent Collection of Portraits, Landscapes, Fancy Pieces, Flower Pieces, History Pieces, Night Pieces, Sea Pieces, Sculpture Pieces, &c., &c., designed by the ablest Masters, and executed by the best Hands in these kingdoms. The Virtuosi will have a new Opportunity of displaying their Taste on this Occasion, by discovering the different Stile of the several Masters employed, and pointing out by what Hand each Piece is drawn. A remarkable Cognoscente who has attended at the Society’s great Room, with his Glass, for several Mornings, has already piqued himself on discovering the famous Painter of the Rising Sun, a modern Claude Lorraine, in an elegant Night-piece of the Man-in-the-Moon. He is also convinced that no other than the famous Artists who drew the Red Lion at Brentford, can be equal to the bold figures in the London ‘Prentice, and that the exquisite Colouring in the Piece called Pyramus and Thisbe must be by the same hand as the Hole-in-the-Wall.”

Shortly after this advertisement, the Exhibition was opened. It was held in Bonnell Thornton’s chambers in Bow Street: the hours were from nine till four, admission one shilling. The tickets had a catalogue prefixed to them. The names of the signboard-painters given in this catalogue were those of the journeymen printers in Mr Baldwin’s office, where it was printed. Hagarty alone was a transparent variation on the name of Hogarth, who had largely contributed to the fun and humour of the Exhibition.

PLATE XIX.
THREE NUNS.
(Banks’s Collection, 1814.)		ABEL DRUGGER.
(Banks’s Collection, 1780.)
WELSH TROOPER.
(From an old print, 1750.)
ELEPHANT AND CASTLE.
(Belle Sauvage Yard, circa 1668.)		BLACK PRINCE.
(Banks’s Collection, 1790.)

The opening of the saloons was the signal for a perfect storm among the newspapers. The artists and their friends were terribly ruffled, and persisted in seeing in it a persifflage of their exhibition just then opened in the Strand. To this animosity, however, we owe all the particulars of the signs exhibited. Catalogues, criticisms, and reviews of the Exhibition were daily brought before the public, giving full details. The most important of them we present to our readers:—