The Bottle 1

Abstract

In 1847 the illustrator George Cruikshank produced The Bottle, a series of 8 prints which shows the apparently inevitable destruction from the introduction of one bottle into a happy and prosperous household. This was reprinted and copied in many editions, turned into prose and dramatic versions, and gave rise to much later temperance propaganda. You can see the original captions, telling the tale, beneath each illustration. Working on this commission apparently affected Cruikshank so powerfully that he became a lifelong teetotaller and worker for temperance himself.

PLATE I. – The Bottle is brought for the first time: the husband induces his wife “Just to take a drop”.