Beschreibung:

A collection of twenty-seven etched caricatures, circa 1775, uncoloured etched caricatures, some dust soiling and staining, small format, various condition The Darlys, a husband and wife team, played a prominent part in the birth of the English caricature. It could be argued that they opened the doors which later exponents crashed through, including James Gillray As early as 1749 Mathew Darley is recorded as having been called to face a parliamentary committee looking into the subject of obscene prints. Mary can quite rightly be called the 'mother of caricaturists'. She developed the idea of producing small engravings with satirical sketches on them the size of a playing card which could be sent through the post. They became collectors items and from 1756 were then bound up and published as an annual review under the title of 'A Political and Satyrical History of the Year'. Mary describes the political sketches as caricatures; the first time this description is applied to a satirical portrait or scene. Mary also taught drawing and caricature-making to suitable Ladies and Gentlemen, and in 1762 published the first guide book to the subject under the title of 'A Book of Caricaturas, on 59 Copper Plates, with Ye Principles of Designing in the Droll & Pleasing Manner'. It contained just three pages of instruction, but also set out numerous examples of her technique. The Darlys had three print shops over a period of a quarter of a century and in that time they dominated the London print shop scene. They were operating in a period just before the Golden Age of satire, which would usher in Gillray, Rowlandson, the Cruikshanks et al, but it was the Darlys that helped it happen. (27)