Zerstorung der Koniglichen Bild Saule zu New Yorck La Destructio

1776. (NEW YORK--AMERICAN REVOLUTION). Die Zerstorung der Koniglichen Bild Saule zu New Yorck | La Destruction de la Statue Royale a Nouvelle Yorck. Augsburg, [ca. 1776]. Hand-colored reverse etching. 11.8 x 16.4 in. Neatly framed and glazed. One minor tear into caption at bottom, light dampstain at bottom extending slightly into image, else very good, with original hand coloring. Neatly framed and glazed. A famous Revolutionary War print, drawn by Francois Xav. Habermann for Collection de Prospects, depicting the Sons of Liberty pulling down the statue of George III in New York. Two crude ladders hold several young men swinging heavy hammers, while a group of men on the ground, with ropes around the neck and body of the statue, pull it to the ground. A large crowd of people, in the street and at windows, witness the spectacle. "A statue of the King had been erected on the Bowling Green after the repeal of the Stamp Act ... in the excitement engendered by the Declaration of Independence and its adoption by the Provincial Congress of New York on 9 July 1776 the royal statue was pulled down. The statue of the Earl of Chatham, a strong advocate of reconciliation, was not touched. This destruction was both a gesture of patriotic triumph and one of defiance, in a city politically divided and threatened with occupation."--BL, War of American Independence, 97; cf. Cresswell 263. For recent scholarship, see Christopher Pierce, "Practicing Peeping! New Notes and Comments on the Collection des Prospects of New York City," Imprint 32 (2007), pp. 10-24.