Bob's the Whole (BM 1868,0808.3664)

Rebus satirising George II, his mistress the Countess of Yarmouth and Robert Walpole (described as "a triple conjunction") and their lack of support for Admiral Vernon's initial success in the Caribbean in the context of the opening stages of the War of Austrian Succession. At the top are three compartments framed in rococo scrolls. On the left the three main figures are conjoined: the Countess faces right holding a Yarmouth herring, "Landed on Horn Fair day" and a pair of horns referring to her husband's cuckoldry; drapery extends behind her covering the lower part of the body of the king, whose feet emerge below (one standing on a cushion labelled "Vernon"); he leans forward, his hat between his teeth, holding out a paper offering "To Deliver up Gibralter and Port mahon"; the drapery is hung with ribbons labelled with the names of the electorates of the Holy Roman Empire, the king's right hand, holding a quill pen, obscures the name of Hanover implying that his electorate should be protected even at the cost of conceding British possessions in the Mediterranean; Walpole sits on the king's back clenching his fist and looking downwards to left. A gentleman to the left of the group bows, his hat under his arm, saying "No Treaty, without an Imperial Convention". In a smaller compartment on the right a group of English naval officers stand near their ships on a shore of "Cumber, land; Har[bour]" with the fort of Santiago de Cuba to their left, a monkey dressed as a Spaniard capers in front of the officers holding a paper lettered, "Acquisitions you can't keep"; below this in the lower right hand corner are the crowns and sceptre of France, Hungary, Bavaria and Britain. The rebus below, a parody of the creed referring to the king, Yarmouth and Walpole, begins with an initial surrounded by military trophies; the achievements of Vernon are extolled after the listing of the corruption of the "trinity".

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