Hogarth warned against finding individual likenesses in this depiction of drunks, noting that ‘We lash the Vices but the Persons spare’. His title mocks the fashionable ‘Conversation Piece’ group portrait. This impression is one of a number printed in red for print collectors who sought out interesting impressions. Hogarth was as aware of his market as of the follies of his peers. In the Royal Collection by 1845 Cat. 87