File:Bass relief found at the Opera House (BM 1868,0808.4753).jpg

English: A design in several compartments purporting to represent five fragments of a stone bas-relief dug up “at the laying of the foundation of the Opera House”, depicting the dancing of the two Vestris. In the upper part of the print are two equal fragments of a frieze: [1] An ape capers between Vestris fils (left) and Vestris père (right). The two dancers are standing on one leg, their arms held out, in attitudes which though caricatured are graceful. The son has a feathered hat, the father a cap surmounted with a coronet of ostrich-feathers. The ape, dressed in a coat and waistcoat, has a muff slung round its neck and a head-dress of peacock's feathers. He mimics the pose of the dancers. On the right is a classical statue of a nude man, the left hand broken off at the wrist. Beneath the ape are the words “In Fashione”, beneath the statue, “Out of Fashione”; across the top of the fragment is inscribed “Son of this Father”.

[2] A similar design of an ape dancing between the two Vestris. The ape is not dressed up, but has branches of oak leaves attached to its head in imitation of the head-dress of the elder Vestris. On the left is a similar statue inscribed, “Grace in olde Times”. Across the top of the fragment is “Vest . . s father and son”; and below Vestris père (left), “Moderne Gracefull Postures”.
The lower part of the print is in three compartments. [3] Vestris père (left) dances, above his head is inscribed “I am alone”. An ape dressed up in feathered hat, coat, and sword, takes a pinch of snuff, above its head is inscribed, “No Pardieu behold your tutor”. Behind (centre) is the lower part of a classical statue of a man from which the torso and head have fallen and lie on the ground. It is inscribed “Simplicity adieu”.
[4] On the right is a companion design inscribed “Vestris en Roy”. Vestris, in feathered hat, coat, and top-boots (left), capers in front of a dressed-up ape who bows before him, doffing its hat, a large muff is slung across its shoulders and hangs down its back.
[5] In the centre between [3] and [4] is the principal and central design, within a shield whose supporters are, dexter, a zany in a striped suit, and sinister (right), a fool in parti-coloured dress and high fool's cap. In the centre of the shield is a man in pseudo-Elizabethan dress wearing a ribbon and star, behind him are two ladies, one of whom wears a coronet. All three hold out bags of money to a dancer who strikes an attitude on their left. In one hand he holds out a ticket inscribed “Box”, in the other, a paper, “Vestris Opera second benefit”. His tunic is decorated with fleurs-de-lys. On the nobleman's right a man kneels with a face of distress, holding out a paper inscribed “Opera . . . Sufferers . . . Barbadoe[s] . . . America”. Behind him a building has been shattered by a violent storm, clouds and lightning fill the sky above it. The nobleman repels the suppliant with his hand, while he tramples under his feet a paper inscribed “Barbados”. Beneath the shield is a scroll, inscribed with words addressed to the suppliant from Barbados (left), “Away we have no time to attend to Trifles” and (right) addressed to Vestris, “Your owne price secure us but places”. The shield is surmounted by a crest of a fool's cap and bells with the motto “Wear me who will”.
Beneath the right and left compartments of this design is engraved: “To such of the Nobilitie, Gentrie &c. of G***t B***t**n whose hearts are so unnatturallie devoide of feeling, as to prefer the squandering away of that Wealth, which God has put them in possessione of (as Stewards of his bountie) upon impertinent Coxcombs, the very scum of a rival Nation, and at best but the shadow of a Contemptable animal, to nobly relieving the Distresses of their unfortunate Countrie Men, this Sculpture is humbly Dedicated.”
Attached to the print is a printed “Description of the curious ancient bass relief which was found upon laying the Foundation of the present Opera-House, in the Haymarket”. The “friendly Reader” is requested to “compare the Barbarity of the old Times with the Politeness of the present”. “Could we . . . believe that our Ancestors were so totally lost to true Taste and Judgment as to sit with patience to behold the ridiculous unmeaning Attitudes of a French Posture-Master especially when the Artist had so evidently produced the original Brute, from whence this wretched Plagiary borrowed his chief Graces?” The supporters of the Arms are explained as “Folly and Absurdity”. The print “is faithfully copied from an old Drawing in Bister. . . .” 7 April 1781

Etching and mezzotint