Les grenouilles qui demandent un roi (The Frogs Asking for a King)

In this blank ink, lithographic, political caricature printed on yellowed newsprint circa 1845, a group of dapper frogs stare at the sky as a pear with a puckered face is dropped from the heavens. Standing in a swamp dressed in frockcoats and breeches, the dozen frogs stand in a semi-circle gazing up at a hole in the clouds. From that hole emerges a hand, spread fingers pointing down. Beneath the hand, a plump pear falls toward the frogs. On it is a squished face with near-vertical slits for eyes, an elongated nose, and a tiny, puckered mouth, the bulbous cheeks of the fruit acting as jowls. Through the yellowed newsprint, typeset text from the opposite side of the page bleeds through, filling the open sky above the frogs with ghostly vertical lines.