The Return from the Continent, or the Family Puzzled
John Phillips British
Publisher Thomas McLean British
Not on view
This print satirizes French fashion by showing a stout middle class Englishman returned from Paris. As a seated lady pours tea, she misses the cup and remarks on the transformed appearance of her husband, "Lord, my dear! the French folks have quite transmogrify'd you. What, is that a French collar? why, it sticks out like two large horns; and they've stuck a sugar-loaf on your head—and what have they been doing with your small cloaths? and where's your wig, my dear? He answers, "O! all a mode! all a mode!" Their daughter says, 'All a mode! all a mode! Why, Papa, you seem to have forgot all your English. You'll have all the customers take you for a French Mounseer." A clipped poodle stands at left and the ladies wear dresses with huge gigot sleeves and bold prints representing English fashion.