Term Time or the Lawyers all alive in Westminster Hall

Details

Robert Dighton (1751-1814)
Term Time or the Lawyers all alive in Westminster Hall
signed 'Dighton-del.' (lower right) and inscribed and numbered '557.A Peep into the Court of Kings Bench [crossed out] Term Time or the Lawyers all alive in Westminster Hall' (lower centre in the margin)
pencil, pen and grey ink and watercolour in the artist's ink-line border
13½ x 9¾ in. (34.3 x 24.7 cm.)

Provenance

Jeffrey Rose; Sotheby's, London, 23 February 1978, lot 68.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 7 April 1992, lot 125.

Special notice

VAT rate of 17.5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Dighton often turned his biting satire against corruption in the legal system. In another work entitled The First Day of Term-or the devil among the Lawyers Dighton depicts the devil distributing cases to the assembled lawyers, on the documents handed out are written 'Debts £2-Costs £ 35.0.0', 'Putting off from Term to Term to Increase Costs', 'To do away facts by Bullying £5.5 Mr Bother 'em' and 'Buying witnesses to prove what never happened £10.0.0'.

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