"A Barber's Shop in Assize Time" is based on a painting by the caricaturist Henry William Bunbury. It was originally published in January 1811, and it was also Gillray's very last print before he succumbed to severe mental illness and passed away in 1815.
The artwork captures a chaotic, humorous glimpse into 19th-century social life and legal history.
When it was "assize time," a quiet country town suddenly flooded with judges, barristers, solicitors, jurors, and witnesses. This unexpected crowd created a massive, frantic rush for local services—especially barbers.
The print depicts the interior of a packed, run-down country barbershop struggling to cope with the surge of legal professionals and locals.
A young barber's assistant is shown holding two heavily curled legal wigs, while a long judge’s gown-wig hangs on a block in the background waiting to be dressed.
A lean, tattered barber shaves a heavily lathered local rustic in the centre. On the right, a fat barber clumsily shaves an old man, while another customer looks on painfully as he stems a bleeding cut from a razor slip.
In the background, an elderly man proudly adjusts his newly powdered wig in a mirror, while a coachman puts on his tightly curled wig. Animals—including mischievous cats, dogs, and a magpie stealing a piece of a wig from a box—add to the sense of absolute pandemonium
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".
