Beschreibung:

Prostitution broadsides. Four broadsides advertising the 'wares' of prostitutes, no publisher or place, possibly Lichfield, circa 1780, drop-head titles: 'The only True List, of those celebrated Sporting Ladies, or Petticoat Amblers, who afford the Bucks and Bloods an amorous Felicity every Evening during the Races', 'An Entire List of all the Sporting Ladies, Entered to run here;-- with a particular Account of their Pedigrees and Performances', 'A True List of the Sporting Ladies', and 'Correct List of the Sporting Ladies, Who are just arriv'd at these Races', all but second incorporating a woodcut illustration at head, each with lines of satirical text printed in a single column describing the attributes of available prostitutes, two broadsides mentioning rates or prices ('Plain, with Ruffles, 5 [shillings]'; 'for a flying stroke, 6d. all night 2s.'), printed on laid paper, versos blank, some spotting, approximately 29 x 17 cm and similar sizes, tipped onto modern paper rectos of a purpose-made album by Bernard Middleton, gilt-titled and decorated red quarter morocco with Cockerell marbled boards and vellum tips, bookplate of Martin & Josephine Orskey, with additional dated ownership signature and binder note dated 1963 to front pastedown, slim folio (Qty: 1) Extremely rare survivals, no other copies of these are recorded by ESTC online which only lists four similar 'sporting ladies' broadsides: 1) 'List of the Sporting Ladies', [Oxford, 1770?], ESTC T41080 (BL and private collection, North America); 2) 'A list of the sporting ladies, who are arrived in Edinburgh, from all different towns in the three kingdoms, to take their pleasure at Kelso races', [Edinburgh?, 1789], ESTC T173516 (NLS only); 3) 'Races extraordinary; or a curious list of sporting ladies: entered to run for a pair of velvet breeches, with golden buttons. The horses belonging to sporting ladies, and jockied by celebrated riding lasses, [Newcastle upon Tyne?, 1800?], ESTC T224875 (BL only); 4) 'A true list of all the sporting ladie's [sic] that are enter'd to run at the present races at Carlisle', [Carlisle, 1775?], ESTC T228508 (BL only). Copac locates two others, a second issue of the Oxford broadside with a suggested date of 1775 (BL), and 'A list of the sporting ladies who is [sic] arrived from all the principal towns in Great Britain and Ireland, to take their pleasure at Leith races, on Monday the 3d June 1776', [Edinburgh, 1776], an 86-line poem in double columns (NLS). The broadsides are 'advertisements' for prostitutes who will be attending unspecified race meetings, but believed by Martin Orskey to originate from Lichfield, Martin having extracted them from a bound volume of chapbooks published in Lichfield in the 1770s. The sheets describe in ribald prose form the various attributes and skills of individual ladies, who are given comical sobriquets such as Jenny Foreyard, Cleopatra Tickleback, Polly Trim, Jenny Spruce and Lucy Pleasant. These names appear on both the second and third broadsides, along with Diana Trapes, a direct reference to the eponymous character and companion to Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, first performed and first published in 1728. There is a suggestion that these sporting ladies now trying their 'fortunes in the jockeying trade' came from diverse places in England and Scotland: those formerly 'preparing Fruit to make Wooden drink in Cyder-Land', and those 'From the other side of the Tweed are likewise come a numerous string of brimstones who may be heard of at the Oatmeal Grinder's in Water-Gruel Square … They are all now warranted clear of the Scrub, having been well fumigated since their arrival in England'. In another we are rudely told that Miss Diana G---y and Miss Di-dg-se 'may be heard of at Cunny-Hall, in Cock-Alley'.