George Cruikshank, click for full size.
The Gin Shop, George Cruikshank, Etching coloured, 1829. Subject: Alcohol, Gin, Drunkenness, Mother’s Ruin, Children, Child Care.
The GIN Shop –
—”Now oh dear, how shocking the thought is They makes the gin from aquafortis:
They do it on purpose folks lives to shorten And tickets it up at two-pence a quartern.”
New Ballad.
You can read more about the Gin Craze here.
This one is familiar from history classes way back when.
A very subtle, almost imperceptible, warning the dangers of alcoholism?
I don’t think Cruikshank did subtle. :D The gin craze, as Jazzlet notes, is a familiar part of history in England, the situation was on the dire side. Gin had the nickname Mother’s Ruin, and Hogarth’s etching over the gin business was certainly a gloomy one, filled with death.
I was not aware of that history of Gin in England. Seems it was the hooch of choice for the poor, kinda like Rum (made from potatoes) is in CZ and Vodka in Russia.
I like gin. We currently have 5 varieties.
6 if I could find the Sapphire again.
I can’t stand the stuff. Rick likes it, and tried time and time again to get me to try it, but once was enough.
The gin craze did leave us with some amazing Gin Palaces, these days ‘just’ pubs, but oh what pubs, incredible mahogany bars, fancy brass foot rails, ornate plaster, vibrant tiling, etched mirrors and windows. To people who were packed into appalling accomodation like sardines the gin Palaces offered a taste of luxury they would never otherwise see, there are hints of that in the print, like the fake marble pillasters behind the bar, but most of all they offered light and warmth in a very dark, cold world, all for the price of a drink.
Gin, the crack cocaine of 18th century England.
I liked gin before becoming a gouty old bastard. Here in Finland, gin mixed with grapefruit soda (Gin Long Drink a.k.a. lonkero (= tentacle)) is very popular and it’s the most popular pre-mixed drink (5,5 % alcohol), sold both in the state alcohol monopoly stores as well as in normal grocery stores starting January 2018. Originally they started to bottle it (and another long drink with brandy) for the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, in order to have a quick and easy to serve alcoholic drink for bars that would be crowded with foreigners.