The aim of this section is to give examples of Gillrays work with original colours. Too often examples appear on the market with incorrect colouring.
After approximately 1792 Humphrey seems to have standardised the colouring on each image and even if the same image was printed many years later the colouring was still the same. For instance the Bonham’s sale of 2005, where the album they broke and sold the individual prints from, was composed of c.1818 printings.
Pre 1792 the colouring is more difficult to determine. There are three main reasons for this. Firstly many of these early images would have been sold uncoloured. Secondly, some of these images appear infrequently with the result that it is difficult to check the colours on a number of different examples. Thirdly, I feel that in this early period Humphrey’s shop was not as successful as in later years and it seems that the standard ‘shop colour' had not developed.

Please let me know if you have examples of any of these images, (especially the early ones), and where the colour differs from the examples here. Also, images not in this listing would also be useful.

Any years with no images will be on line soon.

This is an information page only and NOT a selling page.