Legal & artistic interest. A Hogarth caricature of 1758

The unusual engraving titled The Bench measures 9 x 8 ins visible in an old oak frame 10½ x 9½ ins and is credited Designed & Engraved by W. Hogarth and Published as the Act directs. 4 Sep. 1758. The top half of the print shows four heavily bewigged and well fed judges, two clearly asleep and the central one identified beneath the title in contemporary ink as Judge Wills. The lower half is a discourse on the sub title Of the different meaning of the Words Character, Caracatura and Outrè in Painting and Drawing in which the writer is critical of caracature or what we would now call caricature.  The picture has not been removed from the frame in decades and bears an old calling card of Mr R A Logan, Solicitor of Dorchester.         sep8/3