Affability, London, 1795

1795. 13-1/4" x 9-1/2" hand-colored etching and aquatint. 13-1/4" x 9-1/2" hand-colored etching and aquatint. "Well Friend, Where A'You Going, Hay?" Gillray, James [1756-1815]. Affability. [London: Hannah Humphrey, c. 1795]. 13-1/4" x 9-1/4" hand-colored etching and aquatint (measured to plate marks) on wove paper, without watermark, attractively mounted and matted. Light even toning to margins. A good impression with vivid colors. $950. * The nature of this scene is well-summarized in BM Satires: "The King in profile to the right, with the Queen holding his right arm, leans towards a startled yokel who clutches his hat and a bucket. Behind the yokel (right) are pigs sniffing at the bucket and the gable end of buildings. All are caricatured. The King wears riding-dress, with a broad-brimmed hat and a spencer (see BMSat 8192) over his coat. He stands as if knock-kneed, his legs awkwardly splayed out. The Queen is dwarfish, wearing a hood over her hat and a shapeless cloak. In her right hand is a snuff-box. The yokel, wearing smock and gaiters, has the staring eyes, lantern jaws, and gaping mouth characteristic of Gillray's sansculottes. Beneath the title: '"Well, Friend, where a' you going, Hay? - what's your Name, hay? - where d'ye Live, hay? - hay?" Humphrey [c.1745-1818] was an important printseller. As the Oxford DNB notes: her shop offered "high quality portrait and history plates as well as caricatures, and the shop presumably stocked a mixed range of fashionable prints. Increasingly, however, she specialized in caricature, and in 1791 the best graphic satirist, James Gillray...began to work for her exclusively. From then on she was the leading caricature printseller." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) (accessed online). BM Satires 8616. (Inventory #: 71377)