Mrs Everitt and her Son. The Gigantic Infant.

Engraving with stipple (300 x 210mm). Some very minor spotting around the edges but otherwise a very nice copy. Preserved in a modern mount.

 

London: by W. Richardson, 21st Jan^y^,

The British Museum has two impressions of this print - one with the imprint scratched out and another with the same date but the publisher's name changed to "M. A. Rigg...Hatton Street, Holborn". Beneath the Rigg impression is a manuscript note: "on the 26th of Nov 1779 a letter was read to the Royal Society announcing this remarkable infant with several dimensions of him which may be seen on the Guard works of the Society"

 

A tragic image of Thomas Hills Everitt who was born an average size but quickly increased until by 9 months he was said to be the age of a 7 year old. Everitt was displayed as a "wonder" in London but died by the time he was 18 months old. 

 

In the image Mrs Everitt is shown holding her naked son on her knee and he is holding an apple. 

 

Daniel Lysons in his entry for Enfield in his Environs of London noted:

 

"His extraordinary size tempted the parents to carry him to London, and exhibit him to the public. I saw him myself in April 1780; and recollect hearing that he died soon after. The dimensions of the child, as given in the hand-bills distributed at the place of exhibition, and under a print of Mrs. Everitt and her son, published in January 1780, were taken when he was eleven months old...Children of remarkably large growth have frequently been exhibited to the public, but generally at the age of five or six years" (p.213)

 

The engraving proudly states beneath the image:

 

"He is of a prodigious weight, lives entirely on the Breast, is healthy, and very good natur'd; was not remarkably large when born, but since the Age of five or six weeks, has increased to the amazing size he is now of"

 

The image had a long life with a version, clearly copying the present, engraved by "R. Cooper" and published at J. Robin's Albion Press in 1822 (see Wellcome).

Stock Code: 250266