A Feather In My Hat: The Macaroni Prints
By Kenneth N. Kurtz
Yankee Doodle went to town,
A riding on a pony.
He stuck a feather in his hat,
And called it Macaroni.
Most American children, upon hearing the lyrics of our country’s first patriotic song, “Yankee Doodle”, ask why sticking a feather in Yankee Doodle’s hat made him into a noodle. Too few adults can answer that in the eighteenth century “macaroni” was a term that the English borrowed from the Italians to mean a very frilly (and often silly) version of the urban dandy. It was only later that a curlicued form of pasta took on the name.
I learned this because my parents, who loved to summer in the Scottish Border town of Selkirk, found a set of Georgian fashion prints in a book shop in Edinburgh. Mother had them framed and hung in the foyer of our home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Now, more than fifty years later, as the eldest of three brothers and scion of the family, they hang in my foyer here in Miami. Recently I had them photographed in honour of this delightful blog.
These are eight of a set of twenty-four Macaroni fashion plates drawn by one of England’s first caricaturists, Mary Marley, and engraved and printed by her husband, Mathew Marley, in 1772. I’m willing to bet that Mary herself did the hand water-colouring of the prints. Originally they worked out of a shop on the Strand, but the subject became so popular that a second shop was opened in the West End, run by Mary, and popularly named “The Macaroni Shop.” Her husband achieved his own claim to fame by drawing and engraving the illustrations for Thomas Chippendale’s Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Directory.
I wonder what my parents’ reaction would be at the thought that in purchasing and hanging these prints that they were forecasting not only their eldest son’s gayness, but also his happy association with a fine web site named after the Macaronis.
(Kenneth Kurtz is the author of Here, And Always Have Been, a collection of gay historical short stories, written under the pseudonym of Kenneth Craigside, and available at Amazon.com)
January 26, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Macaroni Fortunate has clearly had a good night out on the town – he even got a traffic cone! And was “original” a polite word for “barking mad” then?
They look like they are in great condition, and the colours are so fresh and vivid after all this time. Fantastic.
January 26, 2010 at 10:28 pm
They are in good conditio, but that’s because Mother had things framed with acid-free mats and back papers, and because foyers (at least ours) are essetially dark places that sunlight only invades during those brief times that the door is open.
January 27, 2010 at 2:01 am
Delightful! Thank you for sharing these peculiar gentlemen.
I can’t help wanting to pair these fellows up. Roast Beef and Venison could do a restaurant review feature together, and I’m sure Flycatcher and Original would have some interesting adventures…
January 28, 2010 at 3:15 pm
In college I was cast in the role of Sir Benjamin Backbite in Sheirdan’s The School For Scandal. Memories of these prints helped shape the character… especialy his poem:
“Sure never was seen
two such beautiful ponies.
Some horses are clowns,
but these, Macaronies.
To give then this title
I’m sure is not wrong,
For their legs are so slender,
And their tails so long.”
January 27, 2010 at 9:22 am
I think the Flycatcher’s outfit is lovely. Trying to catch a butterfly in two tennis rackets seems doomed to failure though, poor lad.
January 27, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Especially if you’re trying to ballance on two globes!
January 27, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Flycatcher and original are now my new OTP.
Thanks for posting these, Ken, they’re scrumptious.
Charlie
January 27, 2010 at 3:06 pm
OTP? One true paring? One time password? Old Tripe Propensity?
This twenty first century passion for initials makes me loopy. I went crazy several months ago trying to parse HEA and HFN. Ah well. LOL, Charlie.
January 28, 2010 at 9:10 am
I love Unfortunate, his expression is priceless. I wonder if Fortunate stole Unfortunate’s hat, thus causing Unfortunate such woe? Original is dressed rather like a cross between a Scot and a Greek presidential guard!
January 28, 2010 at 3:21 pm
You’re right, Kate, there is something of an Evzone about him.
February 1, 2010 at 4:41 am
Absolutely gorgeous pictures, Ken. Thank you so much for sharing them with us.
February 1, 2010 at 1:31 pm
What is especially fun, Jeanne, is that in a profession wherein we often write coincidences, those prints in my foyer represent one from real life.
February 7, 2010 at 9:07 pm
I have a set of 8 that I am intersted in selling. They are originals and wonderfully framed. if you are interested in purchasing, I am happy to provide photos.
Or if anyone is interested in purchasing, please email me. Thank you.
martajoyquinn@gmail.com
February 8, 2010 at 1:40 am
Are they a different eight? If so, might be fun if you could add their photos to this post.
April 4, 2011 at 5:31 pm
This may be a little late to the conversation. I’m framing four macaroni reproductions and had no idea who the artist behind these were. This post put me on the detective track and led me to do further research. It turns out that their last name is Darly, not Marley.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_and_Matthew_Darly
Thanks though for getting me started. They’re wonderful!
April 4, 2011 at 11:26 pm
You’re right. All sources do say Darley. I just examined my prints which I thought said Marley but now realised that they are signed M. Darley (for Mary) Mea culpa.
October 4, 2011 at 4:35 am
I have the same eight prints although mine are reproductions from an artist in Willaimsburg from the 40’s or 50’s. Have you ever seen the rest of the 24 originals?
June 24, 2012 at 2:05 am
Hi , I just picked up a print of “A Macaroni Gambler” at an antique store on a hunch that it was worth more that the twelve dollar asking price. I just did a google search and discovered its history. Now I would like to find out what it is worth. Any ideas?
August 25, 2012 at 6:46 am
I’d like to use these pictures in my thesis . Would you be able to give me permission to do so?
August 25, 2012 at 11:36 pm
Dear Ms. Bonnington:
Feel free to use those photos of the Macaroni prints, but do check up on my assertions regarding them. Search out the Colonial Williamsburg site where I think you will find better clearer cleaner reproductions than my hazy photos of the originals in my foyer. And what is your thesis about? Care to send me an abstract?
Ken Kurtz
August 27, 2012 at 11:31 pm
I also have the same eight prints. If Ms. Bonnington lives anywhere near Columbia SC she is welcome to photograph mine.
August 27, 2012 at 11:35 pm
I also have the same eight prints. If you live anywhere near Columbia SC you are welcome to photograph mine. Jim
January 10, 2013 at 9:32 pm
[…] Via: historicromance.wordpress.com […]
June 24, 2014 at 7:01 pm
Thanks, Ken, for posting the helpful information and pictures. I just picked up (at a garage sale, no less) a diptych featuring Tom Fool the First and the Fly Catching Macaroni. Fortunately, the engravings’ subject matter didn’t go over well in this literal neck of the woods, where a chainsaw is deemed more important than a paint pot, so I indulged my satirical streak and bought it/them.
July 4, 2014 at 6:04 pm
I also have exactly the same 8 which I believe are original, but I don’t know how to tell.they were framed at a shop in Virginia. If anyone lives near Toledo, Ohio they can view or photograph my illustrations. Does anyone know where to get these appraised? CJ
December 4, 2017 at 11:51 am
I recently found 4 of these at a local thrift store while digging for treasures to resell. … I doubt they could be originals, a friend said maybe reprints done in the 1940’s… I’ve had no luck finding a value so far… Any help or insight would be appreciated. Voidwhereprohibited32 at g mail dot com.
December 4, 2017 at 8:43 pm
Get a magnifying glass. If the print is composed of little dots, it’s a print and not an original.. most of them are reprints.