A coachman, a cook and a household servant in a state of intoxication refuse to open the door of their quarters to their master. Etching by James Bretherton after T. Orde Powlett.

"James Townley's farce High life below stairs was first performed on the London stage in 1759. Famous on both sides of the Atlantic, it provoked outrage among servants for caricaturing their manners. The play's protagonist is a white Jamaican landowner, Lovel. Believing that his servants are cheating him, he infiltrates their quarters. Here we see the cook between a white coachman and servant named Kingston, both drunk on their master's wine. Although Kingston occupies a lowly position in the servant hierarchy, he too refuses to answer Lovel's knock at the door. Kingston is referred to by the cook and coachman [in the play] as "Sambo" and "Blackee" both names frequently applied to black servants (the latter epithet became especially common after the appearance of Townley's play). Kingston was played by white actors in blackface. Thomas Orde sketched this caricature while taking part in a private production of the play. It was common for amateur artists to circulate etchings like this among friends."-- Slavery and portraiture in 18th-century Atlantic Britain, loc. cit.