Advantages of wearing muslin dresses!

Gillray, James, 1756-1815 · February 15, 1802

After the title, "dedicated to the serious attention of the Fashionable Ladies of Great Britain." An enormously fat lady flings up arms, legs, and tea-cup in terror, as her flimsy gown catches fire from a red-hot poker falling from the grate (left). She, a stiff military officer, and a young woman sit at a round tea-table. The man sits paralyzed, alarmed and helpless, spilling his tea. The girl has added to the calamity by knocking over the tea-table so that urn and tea-pot spill their scalding contents, and crockery slides towards the floor. A loutish footman enters (right) but has stopped dead, dropping a dish of muffins. A frightened cat scampers from the hearth-rug. Over the chimney-piece is a picture of Vesuvius in eruption. The woman is a monstrous creature with bare arms and elaborately dressed hair (or wig), a patterned carpet completes the design (BM). / Muslin dresses had become very fashionable at the period when this caricature was published, and several disastrous results of accidental ignition gave to this print a peculiar air of truthfulness. It may be that those interested in the print trade encouraged the production of what was likely to remove prestige from its rival (Wright/Evans).