I would very much like to know what's going on here:
Is the sitting one showing his hand or giving something to the standing one? Is it money or something else? Are they gambling or cruising? Is this prostitution? You can't ignore how incredibly tight the breeches of the standing one are (as if they're not there) or that his riding crop/stick is held in a very suggestive way. Is there some hidden code like in this Boilly painting:
Where the man assumes the woman is a prostitute because of how she's dressed and her gesture is meant to say she isn't and the title itself "Point de Convention" means exactly that? Because yes, people in the 1790s illustrated scenes you might think as "too shocking"! People across history don't behave the way you think of as in Prudish Victorian England (which, for what it's worth, might be a completely made up image you have too). (Women very much DO show their ankles IN A LOT OF ART ACROSS HISTORY AND NO ONE FAINTED OR PANICKED!!!!)
Something is definitely going on in this engraving.
But I have nothing besides the info that was tacked to it on Pinterest: "1793, Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen Göttinger Taschenkalender. Two gentlemen about town." Which is a good start I guess. Better than nothing.
I found it was published in the Göttingen Pocket Calender.
I also found this one:
Labelled "Illustration for Uprightness and Hypocrisy, 1793. Almanac: Pocket Calender of Gotting fot the year 1794." even though it says "Friendship"? It might come from this larger set.
The first one could be coming from this book: Events of Contemporary History, in Göttingen Pocket-Calendar for the Year 1793). Maybe?
I found it! It's from this book! There's no context though. It just seems to be part of a series for fashion plates:
It’s not a social commentary like with Boilly’s painting then. It means it depicts a normal interaction between two men. Still would like to know what they’re doing.
Here’s the book for the other illustration. The set is spread across the almanac but it does seem to contrast good vs false behaviors.
My half-educated guesses:
Maybe it's an étui! While museums online appear to be convinced that ALL étuis are for women and contain sewing kits, it could also be a man's portable grooming kit with a mirror to look at his teeth, etc.
The title character of Frank Mildmay (1829) references his étui: "Perhaps," said I, picking my teeth, and looking at my mouth in a little ivory étui—"perhaps she may be grown a fine girl; she bade fair to be so when I saw her; but fine girls are very plenty now-a-days, since the Vaccine has turned out the small-pox."
An illustration of a young man in 1803 likely holding an étui, in A History of Men's Fashion by Farid Chenoune.
My other idea: It looks a little coffin-shaped, could it perhaps be one of those novelty snuff boxes that looks like a coffin? (Many pictures on auction sites).
Ooohhh thank you so very much!!! I did not know about those things!