A Fine Refiner, or a Search for the Philosopher's Stone!!
Not on view
This print satirizes a turbulent love affair carred on between the actor Edmund Kean and Charlotte Cox between 1821 and 1824. After the two parted acrimoniously, Charlotte's husband, London Alderman Robert Cox, discovered love letters that Kean had sent to his wife and sued the actor for adultery and eventually won 800 pounds damages. In this image, Cox wears cuckold's horns and feeds letters into a cooking pot as a devil-like satyr stokes the fire. Many had been read in court and reprinted in the press, increasing the notoriety of all involved. Duncombe's Miniature Caricature Magazine, which issued this print, had been established in 1821.
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