A Macaroni Gambler

Date1772

Publisher M. Darly

Publisher Mary Darly 1760 - 1781

Publisher Matthew Darly ca. 1720 - 1780

OriginEngland, London

MediumEtching and line engraving on laid paper with hand coloring

DimensionsOverall: 8 9/16 × 5 9/16in. (21.7 × 14.1cm)
Other (Plate): 7 × 5in. (17.8 × 12.7cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-62,67

DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "16"
Lower margin reads: "THE MACARONI. GAMBLER/ Pub accor to Act by MDarly Strand July 2.d 1772."Label TextThe print is plate 16 from volume III of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "24 Caricatures by Several Ladies Gentleman Artists &c." This caricature is thought to represent banker Alexander Fordyce, suggested by the visual pun of the four dice in the title. Fordyce was the most active partner of the firm of London bankers, Neale, James, Fordyce and Down. In 1772, he absconded, after which, on June 12, 1772, the bank stopped payment, about a month before this print was published. According to Frederic George Stephens and Dorothy Mary George, “He was famous for speculations in 'Change Alley', at first very successful, and for his extravagant way of living. He was a Scot and the failure rekindled the outcry against the Scots. The speculative mania which caused the crisis had begun in Scotland." (1) He carries a bag of money in one hand and in his left is a paper that reads: in his left a paper: "Scotch Bill for 10,000. L."

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 1-4.

(1) CATALOGUE OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, Vol. V, pp. 78-79, #5016.ProvenanceBefore 1955, the Old Print Shop (New York, NY); 1955-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).