![Mungomacaroni](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Mungomacaroni.gif)
Mary and Matthew Darly
were
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
printsellers and
caricaturists
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
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, ''A Book of Caricaturas''
ic(c. 1762), aimed at "young gentlemen and ladies."
[National Portrait Gallery , Search the Collection , Archive Collection , Caricatures , The Role of the Amateur](_blank)
/ref> Mary was the wife of Matthew Darly, also called Matthias ( fl. 1741–1778), a London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
printseller, furniture designer, and engraver. Mary was evidently the second wife of Matthew; his first was named Elizabeth Harold.[Constance Simon, ''English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century'' (A.H. Bullen, 1905), 39-51.]
Matthew Darly
Apprenticed to the clockmaker Umfraville Sampson in 1735, Darly himself took on four apprentices between 1752 and 1778. During the first part of his career, Matthew Darly moved from one part of the Strand
Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
* Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
* Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* Strand Street ...
to other, but he always called his shops the "Acorn" or the "Golden Acorn." He may have begun his career as an architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
but then moved into furniture designs and caricature, and soon acquired fame. It was written of Richard Cosway
Richard Cosway (5 November 1742 – 4 July 1821) was a leading English portrait painter of the Georgian and Regency era, noted for his miniatures. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, William Wood, and Richard Crosse. ...
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
Macaroni (, Italian: maccheroni) is dry pasta shaped like narrow tubes.Oxford DictionaryMacaroni/ref> Made with durum wheat, macaroni is commonly cut in short lengths; curved macaroni may be referred to as elbow macaroni. Some home machines ...
Miniature Painter.'"
Matthias Darly not only issued political caricatures, but designed ceilings, chimney
A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...
pieces, mirror frames, girandole
A girandole (; from French, in turn from Italian ''girandola'') is an ornamental branched candlestick or light fixture consisting of several lights, often resembling a small chandelier. Girandoles came into use about the second half of the 17th ce ...
s, decorative panels and other furnishing accessories, He engraved many of Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779) was a cabinet-maker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs in a trade catalogue titled ''The Gentleman and Ca ...
's designs for ''The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director'' (plates dated 1753 and 1754, and plates in the second edition, 1762), and sold his own productions over the counter. The first publication which can be attributed to him with certainty is a colored caricature, ''The Cricket Players of Europe'' (1741). In 1754, with a partner, Edwards, he issued ''A New Book of Chinese Designs'', which was intended to minister to the passing craze for furniture and household decorations in the fanciful chinoiserie
(, ; loanword from French ''wikt:chinoiserie#French, chinoiserie'', from ''wikt:chinois#French, chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of China, Chinese and other East Asia, East Asian artistic traditions, especial ...
style, and also included some Rococo whimsical chairs and tables to be made out of gnarled roots. It was in this year that he engraved many of the plates for Chippendale's ''Director''. ''A New Book of Ceilings'' followed in 1760. He published from many addresses, most of them in the Strand or its immediate neighborhood, and his shop was for a long period perhaps the most important of its kind in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
Darly was for many years in partnership with a man named Edwards, and together they published many political prints, which were originally issued separately and collected annually into volumes under the title of ''Political and Satirical History''. Darly was a member both of the Incorporated Society of Artists
The Society of Artists of Great Britain was founded in London in May 1761 by an association of artists in order to provide a venue for the public exhibition of recent work by living artists, such as was having success in the long-established P ...
and the Free Society of Artists
The Society of Artists of Great Britain was founded in London in May 1761 by an association of artists in order to provide a venue for the public exhibition of recent work by living artists, such as was having success in the long-established ...
, forerunners and unsuccessful rivals of the Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
, and to their exhibitions he contributed many architectural drawings, together with a profile etching of himself (1775). Upon one of these etchings, published from 39 Strand, he is described as Professor of Ornament to the Academy of Great Britain.
Darly's most important publication— his chief claim to being credited as an architect— was ''The Ornamental Architect or Young Artist's Instructor...Consisting of the Five Orders drawn with their Embellishments'' (1770–1771), a title which was changed in the edition of 1773 to ''A Compleat Body of Architecture, embellished with a great Variety of Ornaments''. He also issued ''Sixty Vases by English, French and Italian Masters'' (1767). In addition to his immense mass of other productions Darly executed many book plates, illustrated various books and cabinet-makers' catalogues, and gave lessons in etching.
His skill as a caricaturist brought him into close personal relations with the politicians of his time, and in 1763 he was instrumental in saving John Wilkes
John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fo ...
, whose partisan he was, from death at the hands of James Dunn, who had determined to kill him. Darly, who described himself as Liveryman and block maker, issued his last caricature in October 1780, and as his shop, No. 39 Strand, was let to a new tenant in the following year, it is to be presumed that he had by that time died, or become incapable of further work.
The Darlys
By 1756, the husband-and-wife team had printshops in Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...
and the Strand
Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
* Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
* Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* Strand Street ...
. Mary was the sole manager of the branch at "The Acorn, Ryders Court (Cranbourne Alley), Leicester Fields
Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...
." Mary advertised in the daily papers in her own name as "etcher and publisher." She was one of the first professional caricaturists in England.[Mark Bryant, "The Mother of Pictorial Satire," ''History Today'', April 2007, Vol. 57, Issue 4, pp. 58-9.]
The Darlys' shops, some of the first to specialize in caricature, initially concentrated on political themes in the 1750s, at a time of political crises, but then focused on world of fashion. "They seem to have been shrewd business people, changing their output in response to the fashion of the day." Their etchings and engravings included "Wigs" (12 October 1773), "The Preposterous Head Dress, or the Featherd Lady" (20 March 1776), " Phaetona or Modern Female Taste" (6 November 1776); "Miss Shuttle-Cock" (6 December 1776); and "Oh. Heigh. Oh. Or a View of the Back Settlements" (9 July 1776), a play on words that refers to Ohio Country.
The Darlys also offered drawing lessons to upperclass men and women.
The Darlys relocated their shop from Fleet Street to the West End as the craze for homemade caricatures grew. At their West End shop, they published between 1771 and 1773 six sets of satirical "macaroni
Macaroni (, Italian: maccheroni) is dry pasta shaped like narrow tubes.Oxford DictionaryMacaroni/ref> Made with durum wheat, macaroni is commonly cut in short lengths; curved macaroni may be referred to as elbow macaroni. Some home machines ...
" prints, each set containing 24 portraits.[Amelia F. (Amelia Faye) Rauser - Hair, Authenticity, and the Self-Made Macaroni - Eighteenth-Century Studies 38:1](_blank)
/ref> The new Darly shop became known as "The Macaroni Print-Shop". 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."
During the 1770s, the Darlys sold a variety of prints at a wide range of prices and to customers from various social classes. Their prints included depictions of prostitutes, market vendors, maidservants, and other women of the age.
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..."[Quoted in Cindy McCreery, ''The Satirical Gaze: Prints of Women in Late Eighteenth-Century England'' (Oxford University Press, 2004), 23.]
The Darlys advertised for amateurs to submit sketches for publication. They held an exhibition of amateur prints, such as of "several laughable Subjects, droll Figures, and sundry Characters."
The furniture-makers Ince and Mayhew Ince may refer to:
*Ince, Cheshire, a village in Cheshire, UK
*Ince-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, UK
*Ince (UK Parliament constituency), a former constituency covering Ince-in-Makerfield
*Ince (ward), an electoral ward covering ...
employed Matthew Darly as an engraver. William Austin was a rival of the Darlys.
The Darlys were responsible for bringing Henry Bunbury's talents as a humorous caricaturist to public attention by publishing his work, and Anthony Pasquin
John Williams (1761–1818) was an English poet, satirist, journalist and miscellaneous writer, best known by the pseudonym of Anthony Pasquin.
Life
He was born in London on 28 April 1761, and was sent in 1771 to Merchant Taylors' School. There ...
had studied in the earlier part of his career at Matthew Darly’s studio.
There was a small engraved portrait of Mary Darly in the Print Room of the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
; it is called "The Female Connoisseur" (February 1772). She is depicted examining a caricature sketch.
References
*
External links
Lambiek Comiclopedia article about Matthew and Mary Darly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darly, Mary And Matthew
English caricaturists
English cartoonists
English engravers
English furniture designers
Married couples
18th-century English businesspeople