"Company shocked at a lady getting up to ring the bell" was first published on 20 November 1804.
The artwork depicts a chaotic, comedic scene inside a luxurious Georgian breakfast parlour where five elderly suitors are trying to win the hand of a wealthy young widow. When she stands up to pull the servant's bell rope herself, the men frantically scramble to do it for her to prove their gallantry, triggering a hilarious chain reaction of physical disasters.
The humor in the print comes from the extreme, uncoordinated panic of the suitors.
A large hot water urn topples over, pouring boiling water directly onto a plump man seated at the table.
In his sudden shock and pain, the plump man accidentally stabs himself in the eye with a large piece of food on his fork.
Another suitor lunges blindly toward the bell rope, accidentally driving his knife straight through the plump man's hairpiece.
Falling crockery spills hot tea onto a dog under the table.
The startled dog bites the knee of an officer, who stumbles forward and stomps directly onto the gout-ridden foot of the man behind him.
While etched by James Gillray, the print was actually based on a watercolor design by the amateur caricaturist Brownlow North.
It was distributed by Hannah Humphrey, a highly successful independent businesswoman and the leading publisher of satirical prints in Georgian London. [1, 2]
The print mocks the desperate, clumsy nature of older, greedy suitors tracking down a rich widow. In their rush to perform a basic act of politeness (ringing for a servant), they completely lose their manners and composure.
Gillray was one of five children, and the only one to survive to maturity. In 1770 he was apprenticed to Harry Ashby, a London writing in engraver, and five years later W. Humphrey published a few of Gillray's illustrations including satirical works. By the time Gillray commenced his career satire was old, but personal caricature was in its infancy. Other exponents in this form of art were soon overshadowed by Gillray's superior craftsmanship. His figures were full of vitality, titillating and reflective of some political crisis or private scandal. As his popularity increased so did demand by the public to see more of his work. In the rapidly changing politics of the late18th century he would produce a plate in twenty-four hours. Although sometimes overlooked his speech bubbles were elaborate and Gillray would spend considerable time composing and redrafting the text.
Between 1791 to 1807 his career continued successfully in association with William and Hannah Humphrey. There after Gillray's health began to suffer. He eventually slipped into madness and died shortly before the Battle of Waterloo on June 1st 1815. Hannah, who had a close relationship with him nursed Gillray through out his final years and following his death the copper plates then formed part of Hannah's estate when she died in 1818. The executor's of Hannah's estate sold Gillray's painstakingly worked plates for there second hand copper weight. Hearing of this, the then publisher, Bohn who had previously expressed an interest in buying the plates set about purchasing them from a variety of different sources. Eventually acquiring over 500. In 1851 Bohn republished the engravings in a large folio volume, "The Works of James Gillray".
