Miss Leary, Singer at Vauxhall. [LEARY (Miss Anna Maria)].

Anonymous etching and aquatint printed in brown ink. Platemark 225 x 266 mm, sheet size 257 x 292 mm.
[c1790]

The title is taken from an early pencil inscription in the lower margin, which adds "only two impressions taken from this plate". The other impression is not in the British Museum, though it does have a small etching published by W. Locke in 1792 showing Miss Leary again performing on a balcony at Vauxhall and holding sheet music, but with an orchestra behind her and a wreath around the compostion. Bromley, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits lists a portrait by T. Trotter dated 1786.

This is a fine impression, with just a little soiling in the large margins.

Anna Maria Leary was known as "The Siren of Vauxhall" and was noted for her head-dress of three ostrich feathers. She performed at the Gardens between 1785 and 1792, though in 1787 she was said to "lack confidence". In 1792/3 she married a Mr Franklin and from then until 1807 she sang at Willis's Rooms in King Street and the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand.

Stock no. ebc6050