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1955-62,59, Print
The Original Macaroni
1955-62,59, Print

The Original Macaroni

Date1772
Publisher M. Darly
Publisher Mary Darly (1760 - 1781)
Publisher Matthew Darly (ca. 1720 - 1780)
OriginEngland, London
MediumHand-colored etching and line engraving
DimensionsOverall: 8 5/8 × 5 9/16in. (21.9 × 14.1cm) Other (Plate): 7 × 5in. (17.8 × 12.7cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1955-62,59
DescriptionUpper margin reads: "Tom Fool the first/ 8"
Lower margin reads: "THE ORIGINAL MACARONI./ Pub accor to Act by MDarly Strand May 20,,.th 1772"
Label TextThe print is plate 8 from volume III of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "24 Caricatures by Several Ladies Gentleman Artists &c." This caricature depicts a man standing in profile facing right, wearing a play on mascarade dress or a take on old-fashioned dress. His left hand is outstretched, his right holds a sword of which only the hilt is visible. He wears a wide flat hat and bag wig. His long orange coat and blue waistcoat hang well below his knees. In his right hand he holds a rod to each end of which is slung a fox's tail. A large fox's tail hangs fromt the back of his neck. A bell hangs outwards from the back of his waist. An orange ribbon flutters from his right arm. He wears a small orange and yellow cap with a tuft of feathers at the top. Rows of multi-colored feathers (quills) or ribbons hang from his cap, his waist and the tops of his knee-high stockings. Above is inscribed "Tom Fool the First". At masquerades c. 1772 groups of young men from the universities some dressed as 'Tom fools with caps and bells' were conspicuous. Evidently a caricature of Charles James Fox, a leader of fashion and a favorite subject for caricature at this period.

The Darly's were a husband-and-wife team capitalized on the craze for caricatures, the practice of making a likeness with exaggerated mannerisms or features to create a comic effect, a form that was brought back by aristocratic Britons who visited Italy on the Grand Tour. The Darly’s catered to this audience by publishing a prolific assortment of caricature prints during the 1770s. Many of the Darly's satirized the manners and fashions of the macaroni, a term used to describe a sub-culture of fashionably dressed men during the period, and subsequently, regardless of subject, the Darly's prints were known as "macaroni prints."

Their most famous work was their encyclopedic "Caricatures" which included prints of macaroni’s as well as other interesting characters, such as macaronis, 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.