English courtesans being sold at auction to British and Asian men in a port controlled by the East India Company. Coloured etching by T. Rowlandson, ca. 1815, after J. Gillray.

Gillray's print, of which this is a copy by Rowlandson, is described by Dorothy George in the British Museum catalogue, loc. cit., as follows, amended for differences between Gillray and Rowlandson: A ship-load of English courtesans has just arrived in Calcutta and is being sold by a thin and foppish auctioneer who stands on the extreme left on an improvised rostrum. The women are being inspected by British men and by oriental men whose appearance is more Turkish than Indian. The central figure is a woman who gives her right hand to an Indian, at whom she looks languishingly, her left to a stout Englishman, over whose head a little black boy holds a tall umbrella. Papers projecting from his pocket are inscribed 'Instructions from the Governor'. A stout oriental man smoking a long pipe holds up the petticoats of a woman in back view who puts her hand on the shoulder of an elderly man wearing a jewelled turban, turning aside from a young military officer. The middle distance is crowded with figures; a fat woman (right) is being weighed in a scale opposite a barrel inscribed 'Lack of Rupees' which she outweighs. On the right is the side of a high warehouse into the door of which a number of weeping women are crowding. Over the door is inscribed, 'Warehouse for unsaliable goods from Europe NB: To be return'd by the next ship'. In an upper storey are barrels labelled 'Hunter's restorative damaged'. Behind are the masts of a ship with furled sails. In the foreground is a row of four casks inscribed to indicate that they contain Leake's pills; next to them is a box inscribed 'Surgeons instruments'. In the left foreground is a packing case supposed to contain books and inscribed 'For the amusement of military gent[leme]n. Crazy Tales. Pucelle. Fanny Hill. Elements of Nature': other titles included by Gillray but omitted by Rowlandson are: 'Birchini's Dance'; 'Female Flagellants'; 'Sopha'; 'Moral Tales'. The auctioneer's desk is a bale placed on end and inscribed 'Mrs. Phillips (the original inventor) Leicester Field London. For the use of the Supreme Council.'