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‘The Botanic Macaroni’, 1772

© 2021 Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Description

Mounted hand coloured etching and engraving entitled ‘THE BOTANIC MACARONI’, designed by Robert (?) Dighton, engraved by anon, and published by M. Darly in 1772. ‘

This is a satire on the English naturalist, botanist and explorer Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820). A macaroni was a disparaging term used for a follower of exaggerated continental fashion in the mid to late 1700s.

The caricature features a finished, full length portrait of a smiling Sir Joseph Banks. Banks is depicted dressed in a frock coat and breeches, wearing a bagwig, and holding a briar walking stick in his right hand. His right leg swollen with gout.

He is studying a mounted plant specimen in his right hand, with a magnifying glass in his left. The caricature was published in 1772 when Banks had only recently returned from an expedition to Iceland with the Swedish botanist Daniel Solander. This image is in marked contrast to the more usual, formal and rather severe representations of Banks.