Mary and Matthew Darly were English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 printsellers and caricaturists during the 1770s. Mary Darly (fl.

Floruit

Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...

 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 [sic] (c. 1762), aimed at "young gentlemen and ladies." Mary was the wife of Matthew Darly, also called Matthias (fl. 1741 - 1778),, a London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 printseller, furniture designer, and engraver. Mary was evidently the second wife of Matthew; his first was named Elizabeth Harold.

Matthew Darly

During the first part of his career, Matthew Darly moved from one part of the Strand

Strand, London

Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...

 to other, but he always called his shops the “Acorn” or the “Golden Acorn.” He may have begun his career as an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 but then moved into furniture designs and caricature, and soon acquired fame. It was written of Richard Cosway

Richard Cosway

Richard Cosway was a leading English portrait painter—more accurately a miniaturist—of the Regency era. 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 (fashion)

A macaroni in mid-18th century England, was a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" in terms of clothes, fastidious eating and gambling...

 Miniature Painter.’”

Matthias Darly not only issued political caricatures, but designed ceilings, chimney

Chimney

A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...

 pieces, mirror frames, girandole

Girandole

A Girandole is an ornamental branched candlestick or lighting device often composed of several lights...

s, decorative panels and other furnishing accessories, He engravings many of Thomas Chippendale

Thomas Chippendale

Thomas Chippendale was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director...

'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

Chinoiserie

Chinoiserie, a French term, signifying "Chinese-esque", and pronounced ) refers to a recurring theme in European artistic styles since the seventeenth century, which reflect Chinese artistic influences...

 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

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

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

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 Paris salons....

 and the Free Society of Artists

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 Paris salons....

, forerunners and unsuccessful rivals of the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

, 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

John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives...

, whose partisan he was, from death at the hands of James Dunn, who had determined to kill him. Darly, who described himself as Liveryman

Liveryman

For Livery Companies in the City of London, a Liveryman is a full member of their respective Company.Livery Company members fall into two basic categories: Freemen and Liverymen. One may join as a Freeman, and thereby acquire the "Freedom of the Company", upon fulfilling the Company's criteria...

 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

Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...

 and the Strand

Strand, London

Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...

. Mary was the sole manager of the branch at “The Acorn, Ryders Court (Cranbourne Alley), Leicester Fields.” Mary advertised in the daily papers in her own name as “etcher and publisher.” She was one of the first professional caricaturists in England.

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

Phaeton (carriage)

Phaeton is the early 19th-century term for a sporty open carriage drawn by a single horse or a pair, typically with four extravagantly large wheels, very lightly sprung, with a minimal body, fast and dangerous. It usually had no sidepieces in front of the seats...

 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 Territory.

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 (fashion)

A macaroni in mid-18th century England, was a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" in terms of clothes, fastidious eating and gambling...

" prints, each set containing 24 portraits. 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

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...

, etc..."

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 and Mayhew

Ince and Mayhew were a partnership of furniture designers, upholsterers and cabinetmakers, founded and run by William Ince and John Mayhew in London, England, from 1759 to 1803; Mayhew continued alone in business until 1809. Their premises were listed in London directories in Broad Street, Soho,...

 employed Matthew Darly as an engraver. William Austin was a rival of the Darlys.

The Darlys were responsible for bringing Henry Burberry's talents as a humorous caricaturist to public attention by publishing his work, and Anthony Pasquin 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

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

; it is called “The Female Connoisseur” (February 1772). She is depicted examining a caricature sketch.