The Golden Age of Quackery II (Original)

Artist: Angus McBride
Medium: Gouache on Board
Size: 8" x 12" (200mm x 295mm)
Date: 1968
Code: McBrideQuackII

This is the unique original Gouache painting by Angus McBride.

Count Alessandro Di Cagliostro, an Italian of no noble birth whatsoever arrived in London in 1771 peddling various false medicines. By posing as a rich Count he was able to fool nearly all the people nearly all the time with quack medicines or other confidence trickster connivances.

Ironically, he and his wife became embroiled in the scandal over Marie Antoinette's jewels and his innocence didn't prevent a stay in the Bastille after which he was rejected by every country.

This is the original artwork for illustration on p32 of Look and Learn issue no 577 (3 February 1973).

• Artist Biography
  Angus McBride (1931 - 2007; UK & South Africa)
  Angus McBride is one of the world's most respected historical and fantasy illustrators, and contributed to numerous books, magazines and articles, including the classic Look & Learn, JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, and more than 70 Osprey titles in the past three decades. Born in 1931 of Highland parents, but orphaned as a child, he was educated at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School. He worked in advertising agencies from 1947, and after National Service, emigrated to South Africa where he lived for several years, before relocating to Ireland before his sad demise in 2007.