24 Caricatures by Serveral Ladies Gentlemen Artists &c. Pub'd By MDarly Strand : Volume 1

Date1771

Publisher Mary Darly (1760 - 1781)

Publisher Matthew Darly (ca. 1720 - 1780)

Publisher M. Darly

OriginEngland, London

MediumHand-colored etching with line engraving

DimensionsOverall (Plate): 6 3/4 × 4 1/2in. (17.1 × 11.4cm) Overall: 8 1/2 × 5 1/2in. (21.6 × 14cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-62,1

DescriptionTitle reads:"24./ CARICATURES./ BY SEVERAL. LADIES./ GENTLEMEN./ ARTISTS .&c. PUB'D./ BY. MDARLY. STR-AND."
Lower margin reads: "Pub.d by MDarly Engraver N.o 39 Strand according to Act Nov.r 1 1771"

Label TextThis is the frontispiece for a volume of caricatures by husband and wife team Matthew and Mary Darly who made name for themselves by capitalizing on the upper classes craze for caricatures, the practice of making a likeness with exaggerated mannerisms or features to create a comic effect. The Darly’s catered to this audience by publishing a prolific assortment of caricature prints during the 1770s. Their most famous work was their encyclopedic "Caricatures" which included prints of macaroni’s as well as other interesting characters all based on their own drawings and those submitted to them by amateur artists lambasting their friends, artists, and other figures in London life. The front page of Volume I describes them as “…a Series of Drol[l] Prints consisting of Heads, Figures, Conversations and Satires upon the follies of the Age…” These prints were published in groups of 24, in six volumes that were published between 1771 and 1773. Colonial Williamsburg owns volumes 1-3.

Colored by hand this is the title page of the first volume of satires concerned with the macaronies. It represents a piece of architectural sculpture, being a scroll of foliage on a frieze, part of an antique ruin lying on the earth.