"Uncorking Old Sherry" was first published on March 10, 1805, by Hannah Humphrey. It is a visual lampoon of a heated House of Commons debate between Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and the prominent Whig politician and playwright, Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
The title relies on a clever double entendre playing on the fortified wine and Sheridan’s common nickname, "Sherry".
Prime Minister William Pitt is depicted standing in Parliament, gripping a bottle between his knees and using a corkscrew to pop it open.The bottle contains the bloated, scowling face of Sheridan. Uncorking it causes a violent explosion of froth and air, mimicking a grand but empty political speech.
Bursting out from the bottle are text banners representing empty rhetoric, including labels like "Old Puns", "Stale Jokes", "Fibs! Fibs! Fibs!", and "Dramatic Ravings".
Gillray filled the caricature with precise, layered jabs at the Whig opposition. Sitting behind the bottle are other top Whig leaders—such as Charles James Fox, George Tierney, and Charles Grey—who are all trapped inside their own sealed bottles waiting to be opened.
Each opposition member's bottle is labeled with a low-tier beverage matching their reputation, such as "Mum", "Elder Wine", and "Whitbreads Small Beer".
Spilled at Pitt's feet is a bottle of "Medical Wine" containing Henry Addington (Viscount Sidmouth), signifying his political downfall.
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".
