“so Skiffy – Skipt = on, with his wonted grace” Vide Birthday Ball

James Gillray

“so Skiffy – Skipt = on, with his wonted grace” Vide Birthday Ball

London, H. Humphrey feb. 1^st 1800

Etching

Original hand-colouring

260x180mm

£480

The slender figure of the playwright and fop Lumley Skeffington (1771-1850) skips forward, his grinning, sharp featured profile emerging from the swathes of his neckcloth. His costume is a curious mixture of embroidered court suit, huge lace shirt frill, bag-queue, gathered ‘Jean de Bry’ sleeves and cutaway tails to his coat. Bunches of fobs and seals hang at his waist. Skeffington was frequently the subject of Gillray’s more scathing caricatures on ridiculous fashions. BM 9557.