THE great British tradition of lampooning society and its great and good is celebrated in a new exhibition opening today at Bolton Museum.

Poking Fun: Satirical Prints of the Georgian Era marks the golden age of satire with the exhibition featuring the work of famous printmakers, including Isaac Robert Cruikshank and William Heath, as they put a mirror up against the great changes happening at the time ­— ­and particularly what they perceived as the worst excesses of society.

Cruikshank's The Buff Club at the Pig and Whistle, Bath, is among the works on show ­— with Robert putting himself in the picture.

Caricaturists of that time had plenty of material to work with ­— fashion and manners were said to have become more refined, there was an increase in gin drinking. The Industrial Revolution led to more crowded towns and cities and disease spread rapidly.

Much of this is reflected in the satirical prints and caricatures of the era with the rise of satire in the Georgian era fed by a quiet revolution in publishing and printing leading to new publishers and more great artists producing prints ­— with images lampooning a royal duchess, Bath society, quack doctors and inventions.

The first modern political caricatures were invented in Britain during the long-18th century, often referred to as the 'golden age' of satire.

Such works have attracted national interest with a tour of similar works from the British Museum to venues across the country coming to an end just this week.

Laura Murry, from Bolton Museum, said: "This era is known at the golden age of caricature.

"The prints are all part of our collection. We had a few scrap books with these prints in and these are some of which have been removed by a paper conservator.

"Some have been on show before but not many of them. We have some prints by the famous caricaturists of the time including a local man from Urmston Tim Bobbin, whose name was John Collier.

"I just hope visitors enjoy looking the prints and how they still link with society now."

The exhibition focuses on the social satire of the time, poking fun at the medicine of the time, particularly dentistry and cure all pills!"

"My favourite is the vegetable pills, which were essentially laxatives, the person looks up to find out he was made out of vegetables," said Laura, who added the prints caused controversy back then, as they sometimes do know, with Cruikshank being paid to stop depicting the monarch in his prints.

"We have a lot more prints and it is nice to show some of work of the famous names of the time," said Laura.

The exhibition is on show in the small gallery place at Bolton Museum.

It runs until March 1.