St. James's Macaroni
Date1772
Maker
M. Darly
Maker
Mary Darly
1760 - 1781
Maker
Matthew Darly
ca. 1720 - 1780
After work by
Henry William Bunbury
1750 - 1811
After work by
James Bretherton
fl. 1750 - 1799
OriginEngland, London
MediumEtching and line engraving on laid paper with hand coloring
DimensionsOverall: 8 1/2 × 5 1/2in. (21.6 × 14cm)
Other: 7 × 5in. (17.8 × 12.7cm)
Other: 7 × 5in. (17.8 × 12.7cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1955-62,81
DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "6"Lower margin reads: "THE S.T JAMES's MACARONI./ Pub.d accord.g to Act Aug.t 12.th 1772 by M Darly 39 Strand."Label TextThe print is plate 6 from volume IV of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "VOL. IV. of Macaronies, Characters, Caricatures." This print is based on a print of the same title by Henry William Bunbury engraved by James Bretherton in March 1772. In this version, he faces away from the viewer.
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.ProvenanceBefore 1955, the Old Print Shop (New York, NY); 1955-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).
