Sterne exchanging his Snuff Box with the Monk.

• Price: $695.00
  

  SKU: 102035

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• ARTIST:

• PUBLISHER: Published by Robert Sayer, 53 Fleet Street, London.

• MEDIUM: Mezzotint,

  DATE: 1789

• EDITION SIZE: Image size 10 1/4 x 14 1/4" ( 26.3 x 36.3 cm)

• DESCRIPTION: This mezzotint, published by Robert Sayer in 1789, illustrates a poignant moment from Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768). The scene, titled The Snuff-box Exchange, captures the sentimental interaction between the Franciscan friar, Father Lorenzo, and Mr. Yorick, the novel’s narrator. Depicted outside an octagonal building, Yorick, accompanied by a fashionably dressed woman, exchanges his ornate tortoiseshell snuff box for the friar’s humble horn container. This act symbolizes Yorick's evolving sensitivity and kindness, marking a turning point in his journey toward greater empathy and sentimentality. The mezzotint reflects the era's fascination with Sterne's themes of sentiment and morality, as well as the broader 18th-century trend of sentimental travel literature. Published in London and rooted in British artistic traditions, the work exemplifies the enduring appeal of Sterne's novel as a source of inspiration for illustrators such as Archer and Thomas Stothard, who similarly depicted this transformative exchange in subsequent works.

• ADDITIONAL INFO: This piece is in a 13 x 16 inch archival mylar for handling.

• CONDITION: Fair condition overall, narrow margins which are consistent with many mezzotints of the time.

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• CATEGORIES: 18th-19th Century Subjects , Genre