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121. GILLRAY, James. The Works Of James Gillray From The Original Plates with The Addition Of Many Subjects Not Before Collected. together with [The Supplement Containing The Suppressed Plates]. Henry G. Bohn, n.d. but 1851
£6,995
Elephant folio (650 x 450 mm). Two volumes bound uniformly by Hammond in contemporary half scarlet crushed morocco gilt over marbled boards, the spines divided into seven compartments with raised bands, black morocco and gilt lettering piece to the second compartments of each volume, the remainder richly decorated with gilt-tooled floral motifs surrounding a central gilt-tooled lozenge, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers; title-page with engraved vignette, mezzotint portrait frontispiece, 586 engraved plates on 152 sheets (1-86, 86*, 87-100, 100*, 101-118, 120-207, 203*, 208-237, 239- 379, 379*, 379**, 379***, 380-582), some printed recto and verso; 45 engraved plates on 23 sheets (numbered 1-45); occasional light scattered spotting to a few plates, particularly the last two plates in the principal volume, but generally a bright, fresh set.
Provenance: Sir Albert Edward Richardson, architect, author and President of the RA., with his bookplate to the front pastedowns of each volume.
On the death in 1818 of Gillray’s publisher and printseller, Hannah Humphrey, the business passed to Hannah’s nephew George Humphrey who, in partnership with Thomas McLean, commenced publishing in ten parts a selection of Gillray’s cartoons from the original coppers, although with little commercial success. After the death of George Humphrey his widow carried on the business until she retired in 1835. In July of that year she offered her entire stock, including Gillray’s drawings, prints and copper plates, at auction. While the majority of the drawings and prints found buyers, the copper plates themselves remained unsold due, it was believed, to the high reserve placed on them. Consequently the plates remained with Mrs Humphrey until her death, after which her executors decided to sell them for the price of the copper. Apparently it was the publisher Henry Bohn, who, recognising a commercial opportunity, rescued the coppers from the furnace subsequently gathering together and publishing all but a few of Gillray’s caricatures in the present volumes.
If James Gillray had been successful in pursuing the career of the reproductive engraver, as at one time he was keen to do, posterity would surely have been denied a body of work that contains some of the most biting satirical cartoons ever committed to paper. His influence was, and continues to be, pervasive and far-reaching, informing the work of many of today’s political cartoonists such as Gerald Scarfe, Steve Bell and Martin Rowson, so much so that he can justly be described as the father of political caricature
The present volumes contain many of Gillray’s most memorable images, including the political cartoons with William Pitt and Napoleon Bonaparte as their subjects: ‘Tiddy-Doll, The Great French Ginger-Bread Baker, Drawing Out A New Batch Of Kings…’; ‘The Spanish Bull Fight - or - the- Corsican Matador in Danger’ and the ‘The Plum-Pudding in danger - or - State Epicures taking un Petit Souper’; the social caricatures such as, ‘A Cognoscenti, Contemplating The Beauties Of The Antique’; ‘The Fashionable Mamma - or - The Convenience of Modern Dress’; ‘A Game of Whist’ and ‘A Cockney And His Wife Going To Wycombe’. The volumes include the caricatures of royalty and aristocracy such as, ‘A Sphere projecting against a Plane’, ‘A Voluptuary under the Horrors of Digestion’, ‘Temperance enjoying a Frugal Meal’, ‘ The Gout’, and ‘Fashionable Contrasts; or The Duchess’s little Shoe yeilding [sic] to the Magnitude of the Duke’s Foot’.
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