“Posting in Ireland”. Original copper engraving by James Gillray. From the Bohn edition of 1851, using Gillray’s original copper plates. With later hand colouring.

Original antique engraving by James Gillray. From the Bohn edition of 1851, using Gillray’s original copper plates. With later hand colouring. Original antique copper engraving.

“Posting in Ireland” was originally published on 8 April 1805. The artwork is a satirical depiction of travel and the state of infrastructure in Ireland during the early 19th century.

The image shows a dilapidated post-chaise outside a ramshackle inn. The driver is lashing the horses cruelly while a boy lifts a pitch-fork to strike, and a barefooted slattern approaches from the right with a huge red-hot poker. From the post-chaise leans its occupant, who wears a ribbon and star, and a night-cap.His feet have broken through the ruinous chaise. The chaise is roofed with thatch on which a cock is pecking; it is held together by rope, the reins and traces are of rope. The wheels are broken. Above the door of the inn is a placard: ‘The New Thatched-House Tavern’. On the signboard an eagle attacking a naked infant (Ganymede) is depicted; above is a board: ‘Nate Post-Chaise and Whiskey Nate Entertainment for Man & Beast.’ From a brick chimney a little sweep looks out waving his brush. On a bench by the door a man with a crutch and wooden leg sits smoking and drinking. In the foreground a lean sow eats from a heap of potatoes; a young pig attempts to suck; another, almost a skeleton, tries to eat potatoes.

The print was created following the 1800 Act of Union, which established the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Gillray frequently used his work to comment on Irish political and social conditions, often portraying the United Irishmen and revolutionary movements with sharp ridicule.

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”.