Accession No

4598

Brief Description

cartoon entitled ‘The Comet’, by Thomas Cornell, English, 1789

Origin

England; London; Bralon Street

Maker

Cornell, Thomas

Class

prints; astronomy

Earliest Date

1789

Latest Date

1789

Inscription Date

18-2-1789

Material

paper

Dimensions

breadth 288mm; height 232mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Grosvenor Prints on 12/10/1997.

Inscription

‘Publd by Thos Cornell.
18 Feby 1789 Bralon Street.’ (bottom right corner)

Description Notes

Hand-painted colour print. Image is of a comet in cartoon form. The head of the comet is in star shape filled with the head of a man. The tail predominantly in yellow is filled with other male heads. The background of the print is a black/grey wash. In the bottom left corner is the inscription:
The Comet
A Return of the Comet which appeared in 1761 is expected this Year and
to be within our horizon from the Month of Octr 1788 to Augt 1789 but is expected to be most
visible (if it forces itself upon our notice) in the Winter months Febr.y & March
Dr Trusslers Almanack
By some of the ancient Astronomers Comets were deemed Meteors kindled in the Air and
designed as presages or unlucky Omens of some disastrous Catastrophe

The Peripaleticks deemed them not permanent Bodies but bodies newly produced
and in a short time to perish again and affirmed that they were made up of Exhalations
in the terrestrial Regions

Sr Isaac Newton asserts That the Tail of the Comet is nothing else than a fine Vapour which
the Head of the Comet emits by its heat That Heat the Comet receives from the Sun and the magnitude of the Tail
is always proportional to the degree of heat which the Comet receives, and Comets which are nearest to the Sun have
the longest Tails

Condition good; complete.

References

Events