London Prints Printmakers & Macaroni

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Between 1760 and 1800, enterprising London engravers & printmakers produced and marketed hundreds of mezzotint prints aimed at the growing popular market (comprised mostly of the urban middling sort) who were hungry for affordable prints.

Often these mezzotints, also called drolls, were humorous or satirical and were almost always created in a small 10 x 14 inch format which could be easily and cheaply framed. They were advertised in contemporary print catalogues and easily fit into a print shop display window or into a portfolio case. A traditional mezzotint print would sell for about 8 shillings. A colored droll would be only 2 shillings, and these mezzotints uncolored would cost 1 shilling.

One of the targets of mezzotint satire was a macaroni (or earlier maccaroni), which in mid-18th-century England referred to a fashionable fellow who dressed & spoke in an outlandishly affected manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion in terms of clothing, dining, speech, & entertainment.

Young Englishmen who had traveled to Italy on the Grand Tour often adopted the Italian word maccherone — a boorish fool in Italian — and called anything that seemed fashionable "very macaroni."

In 1764 Horace Walpole mentioned “The Maccaroni Club (which is composed of all the travelled young men who wear long curls and spying-glasses).” A writer in the Oxford Magazine wrote in 1770, “There is indeed a kind of animal, neither male nor female, a thing of the neuter gender, lately started up amongst us. It is called Macaroni. It talks without meaning, it smiles without pleasantry, it eats without appetite, it rides without exercise, it wenches without passion.”

The song “Yankee Doodle,” popular during the American Revolutionary War, mentions a man who "stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni." The terms dandy (from the song) and fop also referred to fancy, fashionable gentlemen. At least 2 of the mezzotints focusing on macaronis depict well-dressed young men declaring their undying love to rather homely older women for their money.

Engravers & printsellers Mary & Matthew Darly in the fashionable west End of London sold sets of satirical "macaroni" caricature prints, between 1771 & 1773. Because of its location & merchandise, the Darly print shop became known as "The Macaroni Print-Shop."

Detail. M. Darly, Macaroni Dressing Room, London, June 26, 1772.

The austerity, anger, & abridged trade of the American Revolution dampened the desire for these mezzotints during the late 1770-80s on both sides of the Atlantic. By the 1790s, the leading droll printsellers, Robert Sayer (1725-1794) and Carington Bowles (1724-1793), were handing their businesses and stock over to others.

By 1800, the enthusiasm for the mezzotint droll was exhausted, soon to be replaced by other emerging engraving techniques, such as stipple and aquatint, as the media favored for the popular print market. Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder (1771-1834) in Germany around 1798. In 1811, Senefelder published The Invention of Lithography, which was soon translated into English, French, & Italian, and the popularity of the technique soared.

Spectators at a Print Shop. Carington Bowles. London. 1774. New York Public Library. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

The Marcaroni Print Shop (The shop of Mary & Matthew Darly). Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Reproduction at allposters.com. Contact CWF for an accurate image.)

London Print Shop of William Humphrey (c.1740-c.1810). Promotional Print. (This depiction is from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce.)

Courtship for Money. Carington Bowles, London 1772. New York Public Library. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Courtship for Money. Philip Dawe Fecit. for John Bowles, London. 1772. New York Public Library. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)














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London Prints Rural Women

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Enterprising London printmakers published hundreds of popular & satirical mezzotints between 1760 and 1800, many of which quickly found their way to the British American colonies and later to the new republic.

These prints were sometimes called drolls, were usually 10' by 14' and were relatively inexpensive. They could be used in homes or in taverns. Many of these prints give a glimpse into the everyday life of women in the larger British world which is seldom found in more formal art.

The Tenant's Daughter. Haines and Son, London. 1798. Yale Center for British Art, Yale University. This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

Love in a Village. Carrington Bowles, London, 1784. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale Univeristy. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

Rural Life. Robert Sayer and J. Bennett. London 1782. The Lewis Walpole Library. Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

Rural Life Spinning Yarn Philip Mercier Pinxt. C. Corbutt fecit.. Robt Sayer, 1760s London, Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

Market Lass. Robert Dighton. Laurie and Whittle, London. 1794. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

Jockey and Jenny. Carington Bowles. London. 1782. The Lewis Walpole Library. Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

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London Prints Domestic Chores

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London printmakers published hundreds of popular & satirical mezzotints between 1760 and 1800, many of which quickly found their way to the British American colonies and later to the new republic.

These prints give a glimpse into the everyday life of women in the larger British world which is seldom found in more formal art.

The Landlord's Daughter. Haines and Son, London. 1798. Yale Center for British Art, Yale University. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

Camp Laundry. Robert Sayer & J. Bennett. London 1782. Metropolitan Museum of Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the Met for an accurate image.)

Lacemaking. John Fairburn. London. 1795. Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library fo the Harvard College Library. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Lady Working Tambour The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Ironing Henry Morland Henry Morland Pinxt. Philip Dawe Fecit. Carrington Bowles. London. 1769. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

March (Lady Holding Sewing). R. Dighton. Carrington Bowles. London. 1784. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Soaping Linnen. Henry Morland Pinxt. Philip Dawe Fecit. Carrington Bowles. London. 1769. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

The Fair Seamstress. Heilman pinxt J. Watson fecit. for John Bowles, London. 1760s. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

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London Prints 1767 Calendar

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London printmakers published hundreds of popular & satirical mezzotints between 1760 and 1800, many of which quickly found their way to the British American colonies and later to the new republic.

These 1767 calendar prints give a glimpse into the everyday life of gentlewomen in the larger British world which is seldom found in more formal art. They depict clothing changes across the seasons as well as outdoor activities.


January. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

February. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

March. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

April. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

May. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

June. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

July. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

August. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

September. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

October. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

November. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

December. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. Yale Center for British Art. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact Yale for an accurate image.)

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London Prints Fashion

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Just as British American colonials were recognizing that they were developing into a far different society than the hereditary and aristocratic world of the mother country, they were in the midst of a full-blown consumer revolution. It was just that consumer revolution which was giving unaccustomed power and wealth to the merchant class.

Affluent merchant families were building grand houses and filling them with imported goods. Textiles, furniture, and table wares flowed into the ports for merchants to sell, and local artisans began to flourish as well. Colonists, without the traditional genetic credentials, were displaying these new acquisitions to project an appearance of refinement and gentility akin to that of the landed gentry in England. Women became more aware of the latest taste in fashion and enhanced their appearance with wigs, cosmetics, hair ornaments, and hats.

As some in the middle of the 18th century worried about the loss of beauty and the enduring role of women as they grew older, others fretted about the ostentatious displays of fashion and cosmetic beauty. Visible distances between the classes were increasing. Values of economy and extravagance would be at war, until the real Revolutionary war would see American country-made economy would become a virtue, even if it was just a temporary trend.

As usual, 18th century pundits used sarcasm and irony to highlight the problem. One poem appearing in the 1756 March editions of both Boston and New York newspapers spoke to the complicit role of the portrait painter in ostentatious display.

THE PETITION
Artful Painter by this Plan
Draw a Female if you can.
Paint her Features bold and gay,
Casting Modesty away;
Let her Art the Mode express,
And fantastick be her Dress.
Cock her up a little Hat
Of various Colours, this and that;
Make her Cap the Fashion new,
An Inch of Gauze or Lace will do.
Cut her Hair the shortest Dock;
Nicely braid the Forehead Lock;
Put her on a Negligee,
A short Sack, or Shepherdee
Ruffled up to keep her warm,
Eight or Ten upon an Arm.
Let her Hoop extending wide
Show her Garters and her Pride.
Her Stockings must be pure and white
For they are seldom out of Sight.
Let her have a high heel'd Shoe,
And a glittering Buckle too.
Other Trifles that you find,
Make quite Careless as her Mind.
Thus equipped, she's charming Ware
For the Races or the Fair.

London's monthly Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure ridiculed the constant changes in female fashion,

Now dress'd in a cap,
now naked in none;
Now loose in a mob,
now close in a Joan;
Without handkerchief now,
and now buried in ruff;
Now plain as a Quaker,
now all in a puff;
Now a shape in neat stays,
now a slattern in jumps
Now high in French heels,
now low in your pumps;
Now monstrous in hoops,
now trapish, and walking
With your petticoats
clung to your heels like a maulkin;
Like the cock on the tower,
that shows you the weather,
You are hardly the same for two days together.

In 1754, a New York newspaper published the satirical view of the extravagance of women's fashion from a poem published in 1753 in London.

A RECEIPT FOR MODERN DRESS
Hang a small bugle cap on as big as a crown,
Snout it off with a flower, vulgo dict. a pompoon;
Let your powder be grey, and braid up your hair
Like the mane of a colt, to be sold at a fair.
A short pair of jumps half an ell from your chin,
To make you appear like one just lying in;
Before, for your breast, put a stomacher bib on
Ragout it with cutlets of silver and ribbon.
Your neck and your shoulders both naked should be,
Was it not for Vandyke blown with Chevaux de Frize.
Let your gown be a sack, blue, yellow, or green,
And frizzle your elbows with ruffles sixteen;
Furl off your lawn aprons with flounces in rows,
Puff and pucker up knots on your arms and your toes;
Make your petticoats short, that a hoop eight yards wide
May decently show how your garters are tied.
With fringes of knotting, your dicky cabob
On slippers of velvet set gold a-la-daube.
But mount on French heels when you go to a ball,
'Tis the fashion to totter and shew you can fall;
Throw modesty out from your manners and face,
A-la-mode de Frangois you're a bit for his Grace.

In 1756, a New York newspaper offered this satirical fashion advice,

The dress of the year 55 that was worn
Is laid in the grave and new fashions are born:
Then hear what your good correspondents advance,
'Tis the Pink of the Mode and dated from France:
Let your cap be a butterfly slightly hung on
Like the shell of a lapwing just hatch'd on her crown
Behind, with a coach horse short dock, cut your hair
Stick a flower before Screw-whiff 'with an air,
A Vandicke in frize your neck must surround,
Turn your lawns into gauze, let your Brussels be blond;
Let your stomacher reach from shoulder to shoulder,
And your breast will appear much fairer and bolder.
Wear a gown or a sack as fancies prevail,
Hut with flounces and furbelows ruffle your tail.
Let your hoop show your stockings & legs to your knees,
And leave men as little as may be to guess.
For other small ornaments, do as before,
Wear ribbons a hundred and ruffles a score;
Let your tail, like your dress, be fantastic and odd,
And then you'll show a way in taste A-la-mode.

A sarcastic and anonymous "Sally Tippet" wrote a letter to a New York newspaper in 1761.

"Ladies...Nothing however looks more surfeiting to me than your home-bred fashions and complements; there is something so rustic, so Bridget-Norton-like in them, which is visible in most of our city ladies, that I believe the one-half have neither milliners, dolls, dressing-maids, dancing-masters, nor indeed pier-glasses."

In addition to the written satire, London printmakers published hundreds of popular & satirical mezzotints between 1760 and 1800, many of which quickly found their way to the British American colonies and later to the new republic.

Lady in her Nightcap at Breakfast. Carington Bowles, May & Printseller, London 1772. Library of Congress. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

The Toilet. Robert Sayer, London. 1786. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale Unviersity. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

The Wig. James Gillray (1756-1815). The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Wig Caught Fire. Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827). The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Tight Lacing. London. Published by William Holland, 1777. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

The Inconvenience of Wigs. Carle Vernet (1758-1836). The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

French Hair Dresser. Published by W. Darling, 1771, London. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

A Fashionable Lady in Dress & Undress. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Fashion 1796. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Charles Catton (1728-1798). Norfolk Museums & Archeological Service. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the museum for an accurate image.)

Fashion Before Ease. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Powdering the Wig. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Beauty and Fashion. Publish'd 24th Jany 1797, by Laurie & Whittle, 53, Fleet Street, London.The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Lady Preparing for Masquerade. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

Lady at her Toilet. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. This library is located in Farmington, Connecticut. (This depiction is a detail from a lecture slide. Do not copy or reproduce. Contact the library for an accurate image.)

1777 Old Free Method of Rouzing a Brother Sportsman. Carrington Bowles, London.

1784 The Stay Maker Taking a Pleasing Circumference. London.

The Last Shift. Carrington Bowles, London.











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