| Summary: | Lettered with title underneath image, "Dandy’s Toilette. Dress’d”. Cropped within plate mark and lacking publication information underneath. Social satire featuring the depiction of a young man (the dandy of the title), being assisted by his manservant, who stands immediately behind him and who is engaged in using a clothes brush on a jacket of bright blue material that the dandy wears, while he looks into a full length mirror in front of him, adjusting his high collar. The dandy wears a top hat of black silk, voluminous pair of trousers of orange coloured cloth, tight narrow black boots with spurs, a very high, stiff white collar and a neck kerchief of white material with red coloured spots. A monocle hangs on a chain around his neck [and what appears to be a fob watch from his waist]. He holds a small narrow cane walking stick. On the dressing table situated next to the mirror are various bottles, a brush, a comb, and boxes while a black trunk is on the floor, adjacent next to the dressing table. A small black dog, wearing a collar with the word 'Dandy' on it looks up at his master, beyond him a boot jack [also known as a boot pull, a small tool that aids in the removal of boots] lies on the carpet. In the foreground of the image lies a book, open at a page that reads: “Gallery / of / Fashion / Dedicated / to the / Beau Monde”, on the opposite page is an image of a woman wearing a hat, holding an umbrella. At left on a chair is a volume of a book, behind this on a table is a peaked cap. Two rapiers hang on the wall in the background, beside these hangs a framed contemporaneous print of a man and a woman greeting one another, their ridiculous clothing impeding their salutations. A small bookshelf hangs on the back wall; on it are several volumes, with the following spine titles ‘Rochester' [about or works by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, (1647-1680), a famous libertine], ‘The Soph’ [possibly a reference to 'Les Lettres à Sophie'? a collection of love letters and correspondence between Mirabeau, written when in captivity at the Vincennes dungeon and his mistress, Sophie de Monnier, who was locked up in a convent at Gien, first published in 1792]; ‘Kisses Secundus’ [a reference to English translations in verse of Johannes Secundus' 'Liber Basiorum' or 'Basia', ('Book of Kisses', first complete edition published in1541)], ‘Ovids Art of Love’, ‘Amator’, ‘Caliphae’ [possibly a reference to ‘Vathek’ a Gothic novel written by William Beckford, where the title character is a caliph] and a volume that lies on the top shelf has a spine title ‘Kisspol Sectness [?]’. A small bust of Venus, with an animated expression, is positioned is profile on an adjacent rococo console shelf bracket, facing in the direction of the bookcase.
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