Exaltation of Faro's Daughters

Gillray had a talent for concretely imagining possibilities. We see that demonstrated over and over again in his political prints like Patriotic Regeneration where he envisions in stunning detail what a post revolutionary trial in England would look like.

But he could also perform that feat in the social sphere as demonstrated by the Exaltation of Faro's Daughters.

The term "Faro's Daughters" refers to a group of fashionable women who held illegal gambling parties in their homes, sometimes acting as banker and dealer as Gillray showed in Modern Hospitality (1792). Far and away the two most conspicuous "Daughters" were the portly Countess of Buckinghamshire (shown here on the left) and the hook-nosed Lady Sarah Archer (on the right). They are surrounded by a crowd presumably hurling insults but obviously tossing whatever else came to hand.

As is routinely mentioned in earlier commentaries, the print was inspired by remarks of Lord Kenyon on a gambling dispute (James vs Wright), on May 9. Those remarks were then reprinted in several newspapers over the next few days where Gillray and other caricaturists would have seen them. Judge Kenyon found it lamentable that gambling

is so prevalent among the higher ranks of society, who have set the example to their inferiors, and who, so it seems, are too great for the law. I wish they could be punished. If any prosecutions are fairly brought before me, and the parties are justly convicted, whatever may be their rank or station in the country, though they should be the first Ladies in the land, they shall certainly exhibit themselves in the pillory.
London Star, May 10, 1796,Pg. 4,

Since the illegal gambling parties of the Countess and Lady Archer were (and had been) an open secret for years, Gillray wasted no time in doing what Lord Kenyon could only wish to do—elevate or "exalt" the pair to a lofty position in the pillory. He was joined the following week by Isaac Cruikshank (??) working for Fores who, as he often did, "borrowed" Gillray's concept to produce another print on the same subject.

Needless to say, there was little to no effort by officials in government to prosecute the ladies. But there WAS immediate action in response to Gillray's print by the ladies themselves.

Lord KENYON'S hint of placing LADIES in the pillory, who should be found guilty of violating the laws by gaming, has found its way into the Print shops, to the no small mortification and disgrace of certain Women of fashion. They have, however, taken every possible precaution against conviction by placing double sentinels at their doors, to see that no vile informer gains admittance.
London Times, May 13, 1796,Pg. 2,

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on Exaltation of Faro's Daughters.
• Christiane Banerji and Diana Donald, Gillray Observed, 1999, p. 106.
• Tim Clayton, James Gillray: A Revolution in Satire p. 249.
• "Albinia Hobart," Wikipedia
• "Faro Ladies," Wikipedia
• "Faro (banking game)," Wikipedia
• "Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon," Wikipedia
• Gillian Russell, "Faro's Daughters": Female Gamesters, Politics, and the Discourse of Finance in 1790s Britain," Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 481-504.
• Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #425.
• Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times, p. 212.