The Works of James Gillray, from the Original Plates, with the Addition of Many Subjects Not Before Collected

GILLRAY, James (1756-1815)

Published by Printed for Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. Printed by Charles Whiting, London, 1851

(24 3/4 x 19 1/4 inches). 153 ff. 306 pp. 589 plates including an mezzotint frontispiece portrait of Gillray by Charles Turner executed in 1819, a woodcut vignette by Gillray on the letterpress title of William Pitt, and 587 caricatural etchings originally dating from 1779 to 1811 printed recto and verso, including 59 one-page etchings, two of which have their versos blank. Plates numbered 1-582 but with additional plates at 86*, 100*, 207*, 379*, 379**, 379***, and no plate 238, as issued. Red half morocco ruled gilt over French curl-patterned marbled boards, six raised bands forming seven compartments on richly gilt spine, with gilt-titling in second compartment, matching endpapers with all edges gilt. Two leaves stained Fully-illustrated elephant folio volume of over 580 Gillray etchings in all their vituperative glory. Gillray, widely considered the father of the political cartoon, used vicious humor and unparalleled draftsmanship to produce some of the greatest political satire in history. A British caricaturist and printmaker, Gillray's lively cartoons of George III, Napoleon, and William Pitt were wildly popular with the public and left a lasting impression on English politics and cartooning. Indeed, one of Gillray's publishers wrote that he was "universally allowed to have been the most eminent satirist of modern times; he stood without a rival in the art of graphic burlesque." Through his caricatures, Gillray scathingly attacked social follies, with no fault escaping his notice, but the quality of his work also owes to his drawings, which are finely and artfully wrought in and of themselves. Gillray began his career as a letter-engraver before he attended the Royal Academy of Art and worked as an engraver for hire, giving his work an artistic competency that escaped some of his followers. Regarded as one of the two most influential early cartoonists, the other being William Hogarth, Gillray's wit and humor, keen sense of the ludicrous, and beauty of execution, has kept his work relevant to this day. The present work is not the 1874/1880 Chatto and Windus title of the same name edited by Thomas Wright, but the rarer Henry George Bohn edition, undated and without the text volume, with several printings from 1847 to 1851. Bohn purchased Gillray's original copper-plates at auction and re-struck them, some dating back sixty years at the time, to print the present folio volume. In the same period, Bohn issued a separate small volume, not present, for 45 plates of Gillray's most censorable material, mainly scatological or sexual in nature. That volume is referred to in Gillray literature as "The Suppressed Plates." The present Bohn edition is considered the first comprehensive collection of Gillray's cartoons, though it should not be used as a catalogue raisonné as several omissions are known. Some confusion exists about the Bohn edition: according to some sources, the initial issue of the Bohn edition was printed recto only; this is not the case. It is always found printed recto verso, as in the present example. Lowndes III, p. 894. Whitman 224. Seller Inventory # 39907

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Works of James Gillray, from the ...
Publisher: Printed for Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. Printed by Charles Whiting, London
Publication Date: 1851
Binding: Elephant folio