In the early stages of Thomas Rowlandson’s printmaking career, at least ninety of his prints are known to have been issued by women publishers, including Elizabeth Jackson, Hannah Humphrey, Elizabeth d’Achery, and Eleanor Lay. Of these, Jackson in particular had an important role in establishing his printmaking. The full extent of her production, for a long time obscured by the later sale of her plates to Samuel Fores, is only just emerging; several recent new discoveries suggest an even wider involvement by her in Rowlandson’s early non-satirical prints. While there is relatively little to be found in the historical record about these enterprising women, evidence from the prints shows the women were successful entrepreneurs, commissioning their own caricature output and collaborating commercially with other printsellers. Another figure of particular interest is Rowlandson’s younger sister Elizabeth, who, after her separation from her husband, the artist Samuel Howitt, also operated as a printseller for over twenty years. She was also an artist and even made a few caricature prints herself after her brother’s drawings, some of which are identified here for the first time.

This chapter traces the career of the printseller Hannah Humphrey and her long association with James Gillray, with whom she lived in some form of partnership from 1794 until Gillray’s death in 1815. Brought up in a shop that sold shells and other curiosities, Hannah’s brother George became the leading commercial expert on shells while her sister Elizabeth married the world’s most important dealer in minerals. As for Hannah, by the time she was twenty-eight, she ran a shop selling prints, and, by the time she died, was the best-known caricature printseller in London. She and her brother William worked with Gillray from the outset of his career, but Hannah ultimately became Gillray’s sole publisher and even a collaborator who likely took part in the creative process as well as the business.