Skip to main content

Primary sourcePainting1 August 1793

The Patentwigg

Wetherell · 1 August 1793

A 1793 etched caricature of Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke, in which Burke is shown as a neatly wigged Tory eavesdropping. It reflects how Burke's political image was seen by his contemporaries.

Shows Burke as contemporaries saw him: a neatly wigged Tory eavesdropping while Fox is ridiculed.

Ask Edmund Burke about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Etching titled 'The Patentwigg': a bald man in a wig shop, with a small dog biting his shoe, is shown a wig by a wigmaker in a tricorn hat under a sign reading 'By the King's Patent'. At right, a man in spectacles peers around a door. Wigs and busts line the shelves.
Wetherell, The Patentwigg (Fox in the wig shop, with Burke eavesdropping), 1 August 1793. Wellcome Collection, London.

About this source

What it is

This is an etching titled 'The Patentwigg', dated 1 August 1793 and made by Wetherell. It shows a bald man in a wig shop, with a small dog biting his shoe, being shown a wig by a wigmaker in a tricorn hat under a sign reading 'By the King's Patent'. At the right, a man in spectacles peers around a door. The catalogue identifies the bald man as Charles James Fox and the man at the door as Burke. The print is held by the Wellcome Collection in London.

Why it matters

Caricatures like this were a popular way to comment on politics in the 1790s. The print contrasts Fox, shown as a dishevelled Whig influenced by the ideas of Tom Paine, with Burke, shown as a neatly wigged Tory. It reveals how opponents tried to label Burke and Fox, and it reminds us that political images were made to persuade as well as to entertain.

Look closer

  • Who is being mocked here, and what visual clues tell you how the artist wants you to judge each man?
  • Why might the artist show Burke hiding behind a door rather than speaking openly?
  • What does this print leave out about the arguments the two men were actually making?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Edmund Burke on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Edmund Burke sources

Meet the AI Edmund Burke →
Title page of 'Reflections on the Revolution in France', set in serif capitals. Text reads: on the revolution in France, and on the proceedings in certain societies in London relative to that event, in a letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Paris, by the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, London: printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, MDCCXC. Yellowed paper with a faint stamp mark in the middle.Book

Primary source

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Edmund Burke · November 1790

Front cover of a brown bound volume with a cream paper label typed 'Burke' and 'Two Speeches at Bristol'. Top left has library call number DA 507 1775 B918 and a blue California library sticker on the left edge with a barcode.Speech

Primary source

Speech to the Electors of Bristol

Edmund Burke · 3 November 1774

Title page of a book: "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", with an ornate knot-work emblem below, and the imprint 'London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall-mall. MDCCLVII'.Book

Primary source

A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

Edmund Burke · 1757

Book

Primary source

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents

Edmund Burke · 23 April 1770

Oil portrait of a man with powdered grey hair in a loose queue, wearing a red coat with dark collar and a cream lace cravat, turned three-quarters to the left against a dark background.Painting

Primary source

Edmund Burke, 1729-1797. Statesman, orator and author

Joshua Reynolds · 1774

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Edmund Burke now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions