{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O184616"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O184616/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CR7543/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CR7543/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CR7543","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O184616/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O184616","accessionNumber":"S.1225-2009","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"The Parting of Hector and Andromache","type":"published title"}],"summaryDescription":"This print published by Matthew or Matthias Darly and his wife Mary on 2nd December 1777 may relate to events in the American War of Independence. Like all topical cartoons, its cryptic references are harder to decipher today than when it was published. According to Dr. Jill Unkel the Darlys may have had: ‘a cautionary brush with censorial authority’ in the 1760s, so the Darlys may deliberately have obfuscated their satirical political points for fear of prosecution\n\nAlthough the image appears to be theatrical, no contemporary play on this topic can be identified. However, the oil painting <i>Hector Taking Leave of Andromache</i> by Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807) would have been well known. Originally exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1768, it was seen at the first Royal Academy exhibition in 1769, and subsequently in prints and variations by followers.\n\r\nThe print depicts the passage in Homer’s Iliad when Hector bids farewell to his wife and child to fight in the Trojan War. Behind them hangs an inn sign representing a bird in a hand and two on a tree with the legend below: ’One Bird in Hand is worth Two in the Bush’. Since Hector wears a moustache (at a time when moustaches were extremely unfashionable in Britain), and because Andromache’s dress bears French sun symbols (Louis XIV having chosen the sun as his symbol during his reign),  it may be using the classical scene to parallel the departure from France in 1777 of the famous moustachioed Polish soldier and military commander Count Casimir Pulaski (1745-1779) to fight on the American side in the War of Independence. Hector’s wife Andromache is shown hanging on to Hector’s ‘loops pigtail’, a length of hair braided in black ribbon and a common style for wigs of French officers at the time.\r\n\nPulaski had met Benjamin Franklin in France in spring 1777 and Franklin has recommended him to General George Washington for service with the continental army cavalry, saying that Pulaski was:  ‘renowned throughout Europe for the courage and bravery he displayed in defence of his country's freedom’. Pulaski left France from Nantes in June 1777 and arrived in Marblehead near Boston on 23rd July. On his arrival he wrote to Washington: ‘I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it’.\n\r\nPulaski’s first military engagement against the British in America was on 11th September 1777 at the Battle of Brandywine, when General Howe and his British forces outmanoeuvred Washington. On 26th September Howe’s troops entered and took Philadelphia, the capital of the USA at the time. Another British attack being led from Canada by General Burgoyne however resulted in him surrendering his entire British army at Saratoga on 17th October. This information would have reached London late in 1777 so the inn sign may have meant that the British army’s occupation of Philadelphia was the ‘bird in hand’. \n\r\nAfter the Battle of Brandywine, American troops withdrew to Lancaster Pennsylvania, six miles from the small town called Bird in Hand. The town took its name from an 18th century inn named to show travellers from Philadelphia (or anywhere else from an easterly direction) who reached it that they would be better off staying there (a bird in hand) than going on to Lancaster in the hope of finding other lodgings (two in bush). \n\r\n‘The Bird in Hand’ was adopted as a pub name in England in the Middle Ages and there are still many pubs of that name in the UK today. English migrants to America took the expression with them so ‘bird in hand’ must have been known there by 1734 when the Pennsylvanian town was founded. The Darlys could find a Bird in Hand pub much nearer home however, since there was one at 17 Long Acre by 1765, now demolished. From 1766 to 1778 Matthew and Mary Darly had a printshop at 39, Strand, on the corner of Buckingham Street .\n\r\nThe Darlys took a keen interest in events in the War of Independence. In March 1776 M. Darly published Noddle Hill, or, How We Are Deceived showing a fleet, army tents, cannons, flags and soldiers on a woman’s wig, relating to General Howe being forced to evacuate his troops from the city of Boston. This is said to be Mary’s work, and a month later ‘M. Darly’ published Bunkers Hill, or, America’s Head Dress on 19th April 1776, a satirical look at the women’s fashion for enormous wigs, showing a woman’s wig supporting infantry, artillery, tents, a sea battle and large flags flying over three redoubts. Four months after publishing The Parting of Hector and Andromache, on 1st April 1778 the Darlys published The Comissioners, a print satirising the promises that might be offered by the British commissioners nominated to negotiate peace with the American colonies.\n\r\nThe inn sign is also painted with the words ‘A single-horse chaise’, ’Mary’ and ‘Security’. A single or one-horse chaise was an enclosed two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage,  a French invention adapted from the sedan chair. It was a popular mode of transport in America at the time, also known as a one-horse shay. They may have been available for hire at the inn, and the inn sign may say Mary because Mary Darly wanted her name to be associated with this print. The curled flourish of the ‘d’ on the inn sign is similar to that on the wig caricatures, said to be by Mary. Because Mary (fl.1760-1781) and Matthew or Matthias Darly (ca.1720-1780) were married, they published simply under the name M. Darly, but Mary had her own shops, prints and publications, including her manual of caricature published in 1762. ‘Security’ may refer to the promise given by King George III in his address to Parliament on 26th October 1775 that any province or colony returning to its Allegiance would receive: ‘Protection and Security, as if such Province or Colony had never revolted.’  \n\r\n\r\n","physicalDescription":"Hand-coloured etching entitled <i>The Parting of Hector and Andromache</i>.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Darly, Matthias","id":"N10251"},"association":{"text":"publisher","id":"x32600"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Darly, Mary","id":"AUTH362103"},"association":{"text":"publisher","id":"x32600"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"},{"text":"paint","id":"AAT15029"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"print-making","id":"AAT131119"},{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"},{"text":"etching (printing process)","id":"AAT53241"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"hand coloured etching","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Colonialism and Empire","id":"THES253004"},{"text":"War","id":"THES257202"},{"text":"Politics","id":"THES48908"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2009CR7543"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"005","id":"THES356585"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"prints","id":"AAT41273"}],[{"text":"etchings","id":"AAT41365"}],[{"text":"hand-colouring","id":"AAT133555"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"published","id":"x30682"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2nd December 1777","earliest":"1777-12-02","latest":"1777-12-02"},"association":{"text":"published","id":"x30682"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"33.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Print size","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"23.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Print size","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Theatrical'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Written in pencil on back of print."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"<i>The Parting of Hector and Andromache</i>. Hand-coloured print published in London by M. Darly, 2nd December 1777, Harry Beard Collection.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["The Parting of Hector and Andromache","Iliad"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.1225-2009"],"accessionNumberNum":"1225","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2009,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"H Beard collection numbering","id":"THES50444"},"number":"F.64-11"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-20","recordCreationDate":"2009-01-23","availableToBook":true}}