James Gillray, 
British 1756-1815- 
Germans Eating Sour-Kraut; 
hand-coloured etching, signed 'Js...

James Gillray, 
British 1756-1815- 

Germans Eating Sour-Kraut; 

hand-coloured etching, signed 'Js Gillray inv & fect' (within the plate), published 7 May 1803 by H. Humphrey, St. James's Street, 26.8 x 37.4 cm. 

Provenance: 
Private Collection, UK. 

Note: 
See British Museum no.1868,0808.7114. 

Five Germans seated at a round table, eating cabbage and sausages. One of these has tucked the table-cloth round his neck. A lean military officer sits in back view plying spoon and fork with elbows raised; a lean dog laps from his plate, one paw on his knee the other on the table. Cocked hat and sword are on the ground beside him. A thin and elderly man of more polished appearance puts down his head to the mound of greenery on his plate, which he shovels up with spoon and fork; his knife lies on the table-cloth. His hat and gold-headed cane are under his stool. A fat cook enters carrying a large steaming dish piled high with sauerkraut and sausages. On the table are a 'Vinegar' bottle and fragments from over-full plates. On the wall are a map of 'The Mouths of the Rhine', showing the 'German Ocean'; an oval bust portrait of 'Arch-Duke Charles' with a gross profile resembling that given by Gillray to the Duke of Clarence; and a picture of a row of pigs whose heads emerge from sties to feed in a trough. On the floor are large tankards, a broken pipe, a pile of used plates which a cat is licking, and a 'Bill of Fare - 1st Course Sour Krout - 2d Course Sour Krout - 3d Course Sour Krout - Desert Sour Krout.' Tankards and plates are inscribed 'Weyler Castle Street'.