Maggs Bros.

Rare. There is an example of this print in the British Museum with the imprint intact (see Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 7, no. 8378, but it does not seem to be in the online catalogue) and one a Yale (with the imprint cut away as here).

A fine and unusual satire on the social standing of women in which seven women of various ranks in society climb an elaborate spiral staircase with a duchess at the very top and a supposedly common woman at the foot of the staircase who has fallen over, lost her hat and has her breasts exposed.

The gracious duchess at the head of the staircase offers her hand to the woman below her saying “come along Marchioness make one of us”, further down the staircase a viscountess is being hotly pursued by a baroness and calls out “Baroness you’ve lost your Breath you lag a little.” The unfortunate woman at the foot of the staircase (who has chaotically fallen) calls out “whenever I try’s to mount I always miss my hold.”

Cruickshanks’ satire exposes the British class system in general but takes particular aim at women who were keen to maintain, but more likely, improve their social status. The supposed “class” or “quality” of the women in this satire is closely connected with their physical appearance and the clothes they wear with the outfits of the women changing (no doubt with great and precise symbolism to a contemporary viewer) as the women descend ascend the staircase.