Original antique engraving by James Gillray. From the Bohn edition of 1851, using Gillray's original copper plates. With later hand colouring.
Originally published in 1796, this image lampoons British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger for introducing higher taxes on alcohol, depicting him as Bacchus with Henry Dundas (Silenus) and John Bull (representing the common man), pleading for relief. Pitt, as Bacchus, demands more duty ("Twenty Pounds a T-Tun") while John Bull shows his empty purse having already spent his money on the last tax rise and is now pleading for mercy, highlighting the oppressive nature of the tax. Gillray once again uses mythological figures to criticize the Government, this time for imposing a tax on wine, mostly affecting the poorer members of society.
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".
