'An Old Performer, playing on a New Instrument or one of the 42d Touching the Invincible'

Bone china made by Spode, Staffordshire, 1801 (c).

This mug is decorated with a caricature of a Highlander playing Napoleon as a bagpipe. The verse, visible in the top left, commemorates the French defeat of 1801 at Alexandria in Egypt during the Wars of the French Revolution (1793-1802).

The balloon reads: 'God save great George our King', with a verse below, 'He fell in love with Egypt once, because it was the high road to India, for himself and friends, to travel by a nigh road. And after making mighty fuss, and fighting night and day there Twas monstrous genteel of us, who would not let him stay there.'