| Summary: | Lettered with title underneath image, "Dandy’s Toilette. Shaving” with publication line underneath: "Publish'd by J. Le Petit, 20 Capel St., Dublin” and lower right, within plate mark "Plate 1". Social satire featuring the depiction of a young man (the dandy of the title), seated at a dressing table; a small amount of lather is on his face and he is shaving using a cut throat razor. He wears a tight pair of light blue trousers, pink slippers, a white shirt and a pair of pink braces. His servant stands behind him, holding a pair of stays. On the dressing table in front of the dandy is a shaving bowl, a linen cloth underneath; a shaving brush, a large jug, a bottle labelled of ‘Curling Fluid’ and various other labelled containers for ‘Palm Soap’, ‘Windsor Soap’ and a bottle labelled ‘Renova Tor’. Beside the dressing table is a shoe rack, with two pairs of shoes (pumps); underneath this a pair of boots is hanging up while underneath them, lying discarded on the carpet are a pair of riding boots (one of which appears to have a last in it). Also on the carpet is a scroll of paper that has written on it "Fancy Ball"; underneath this lies a letter with the words "Miss Stephens" visible on it. Adjacent to this a volume containing a music score lies open on the floor, with the title "Quadrille Dances" visible, and across this lies a flute. An open trunk with a white linen shirt hanging over the edge of the trunk, a pair of black boots and a boot jack [also known as a boot pull, a small tool that aids in the removal of boots] are positioned nearby. On the table next to the dandy's servant, lies a pair of spurs. On the wall behind is a framed contemporaneous satirical print entitled "A Pair of Lancers", while above this is a small shelf of books - one has the spine title 'Ovid', alongside this is a copy of "Fany [sic, Fanny] Hill" [an erotic novel by English novelist John Cleland, published with the title 'Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure']; others have the spine titles "Cupid" and "Monk" [a reference to the gothic novel, 'The Monk: A Romance', by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796] while underneath this is a book entitled 'Kiss of Secund' [a reference to English translations in verse of Johannes Secundus' 'Liber Basiorum' or 'Basia', ('Book of Kisses', first complete edition published in1541)]. A trunk of linen lies open on the floor in the background.
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