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Mary and Matthew Darly

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Mary and Matthew Darly were English printsellers and caricaturists during the 1770s. Mary Darly (fl. 1756-1779) was a printseller, caricaturist, artist, engraver, writer, and teacher. She wrote, illustrated, and published the first book on caricature drawing, the A Book of Caricaturas (c. 1762), aimed at "young gentlemen and ladies."[1] Mary was the wife of Matthew, also called Matthias Darly,[2], a London printseller, furniture designer, and engraver. Mary was evidently the second wife of Matthew; his first was named Elizabeth Harold.[3]

During the first part of his career, Matthew Darly moved from one part of the Strand to other, but he always called his shops the “Acorn” or the “Golden Acorn.”[4] He may have begun his career as an architect but then moved into caricature, and soon acquired fame.[5] It was written of Richard Cosway that “so ridiculously foppish did he become that Matth. Darly the famous caricature print seller, introduced an etching of him in his window in the Strand as the ‘Macaroni Miniature Painter.’”[6]

By 1756, the husband-and-wife team had printshops on Fleet Street and the Strand.[7] Mary was the sole manager of the branch at “The Acorn, Ryders Court (Cranbourne Alley), Leicester Fields.”[8] Mary advertised in the daily papers in her own name as “etcher and publisher.”[9] She was one of the first professional caricaturists in England.[10]

The Darlys’ shops, some of the first to specialize in caricature, initially concentrated on political themes, but then focused on world of fashion.[11] Their etchings and engravings included “Wigs” (October 12 1773), “The Preposterous Head Dress, or the Featherd Lady” (March 20 1776), “Phaetona or Modern Female Taste” (November 6, 1776); “Miss Shuttle-Cock” (December 6, 1776); and “Oh. Heigh. Oh. Or a View of the Back Settlements” (July 9, 1776), a play on words that refers to Ohio Territory.[12]

The Darlys also offered drawing lessons to upperclass men and women.[13] Matthew and Mary Darly fueled a rage for caricatures in London, flooding the market with prints on social life, such as those lampooning the so-called "macaronis."[14] During the 1770s, the Darlys sold a variety of prints at a wide range of prices and to a customers from various social classes. Their prints included depictions of prostitutes, market vendors, maidservants, and other women of the age.[15]

They also engraved the drawings of others. The Darlys advertised that "Ladies to whom the fumes of the Aqua Fortis are Noxious may have their Plates carefully Bit, and proved, and may be attended at their own Houses, and have ev’ry necessary instruction in any part of Engraving, Etching, Dry Needle, Metzotinto, etc..."[16]

The Darlys advertised for amateurs to submit sketches for publication.[17] They held an exhibition of amateur prints, such as of “several laughable Subjects, droll Figures, and sundry Characters.”[18]

Ince and Mayhew employed Matthew Darly as an engraver. William Austin was a rival of the Darlys.

The Darlys were responsible for bringing Henry Burberry's talents as a humorous caricaturist to public attention by publishing his work, and Anthony Pasquin had studied in the earlier part of his career at Matthew Darly’s studio.[19]

References

  1. ^ http://www.npg.org.uk/live/arccari3.asp
  2. ^ See Mark Bryant, “The Mother of Pictorial Satire,” History Today, April 2007, Vol. 57, Issue 4, p. 58-9.
  3. ^ Constance Simon, English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century (A.H. Bullen, 1905), 39-51.
  4. ^ Constance Simon, English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century (A.H. Bullen, 1905), 39-51.
  5. ^ Constance Simon, English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century (A.H. Bullen, 1905), 39-51.
  6. ^ Constance Simon, English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century (A.H. Bullen, 1905), 39-51.
  7. ^ http://www.npg.org.uk/live/arccari3.asp
  8. ^ Constance Simon, English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century (A.H. Bullen, 1905), 39-51.
  9. ^ Constance Simon, English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century (A.H. Bullen, 1905), 39-51.
  10. ^ Mark Bryant, “The Mother of Pictorial Satire,” History Today, April 2007, Vol. 57, Issue 4, p. 58-9.
  11. ^ Mark Bryant, “The Mother of Pictorial Satire,” History Today, April 2007, Vol. 57, Issue 4, p. 58-9.
  12. ^ http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/html/exhibitions/hair/
  13. ^ Cindy McCreery, The Satirical Gaze: Prints of Women in Late Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford University Press, 2004), 171.
  14. ^ Shearer West, “The Darly Macaroni Prints and the Politics of "Private Man", Eighteenth-Century Life, 2001; 25: 170-182.
  15. ^ Cindy McCreery, The Satirical Gaze: Prints of Women in Late Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford University Press, 2004), 45.
  16. ^ Quoted in Cindy McCreery, The Satirical Gaze: Prints of Women in Late Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford University Press, 2004), 23.
  17. ^ http://www.npg.org.uk/live/arccari3.asp
  18. ^ http://www.npg.org.uk/live/arccari3.asp
  19. ^ Constance Simon, English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century (A.H. Bullen, 1905), 39-51.
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