Plumb-pudding in danger or State Epicures taking un Petit Souper by James Gillray – £8500 at Forum.
Published by Hannah Humphrey in 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte and William Pitt face each other across a steaming ‘plum-pudding’ globe, both intent on carving themselves a substantial portion of the world.
This copy, trimmed to or just within the platemark with some toning to extremities of the sheet and minor spotting, had a guide of £6000-8000 at Forum (36% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in London on December 1 and sold at £8500.
Although one took a record £15,000 back in 2013 at Bloomsbury Auctions, a more recent comparison is the copy sold as part of the Arthur Gilbert collection of Gilray prints at Bonhams in 2020 that made £7000.
