"A Birmingham Toast, as given on the 14th of July, by the Revolution Society" was first published in 1791. It mocked a dinner held in Birmingham to celebrate the French Revolution, which conservative loyalists feared would incite treasonous, anti-monarchist sentiment in Britain.
The print features prominent Whigs and reformists, parodying the Last Supper in a harsh anti-Jacobin light. The specific, infamous toast depicted in the image was allegedly "The King's Head"—a visual and linguistic pun that implied beheading the British monarch, similar to the French Revolution's trajectory.
The figures shown partaking in this treasonous toast include Joseph Priestley (standing on the left), who holds an empty communion plate and brimming chalice, declaring "The King's Head, here!" , Charles James Fox (seated centrally), raising his glass and exclaiming "My Soul & Body, both, upon this Toast!!!" and Richard Brinsley Sheridan (left, in an orange coat), stating "O Heav'ns! why I would empty a Chelsea Pensioner's small-beer barrel, in such a cause!!". John Horne Tooke also features sitting on the right and Sir Cecil Wray on the far left.
The print's publication a week after the real-life dinner contributed to a wave of anti-Dissenting paranoia that resulted in the violent Priestley Riots of July 1791, during which Priestley's Birmingham home and laboratory were destroyed
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".
