Eleanor Lay

Eleanor Lay, usually styled Mrs Lay (active 1788–1790 in Brighton), was a publisher and print-seller, with a fashionable print shop on The Steine in Brighton. As well as selling prints from London publishers, she designed and published a number of prints herself, including four views of Brighton in 1788,^[1] dedicated to Mrs Fitzherbert. The original watercolours by Lay are in the Brighton Museum.^[2]

In 1789, she published two prints by the young Thomas Rowlandson^[3] and also co-published several others for a drawing book by Rowlandson with the London publishers Samuel William Fores and John Harris.

One of her plates by Rowlandson A Sufferer for Decency was acquired by Thomas Tegg at some point and reissued by him with modified lettering in the 1810s in the Caricature Magazine.

See also

• List of women printers and publishers before 1800

References

1. Ford, John & Jill (1981). 'Images of Brighton'. Richmond on Thames: Saint Helena Press. ISBN 0906964024. Numbers 337, 338, 339, 340.
2. Brighton Museum Collections.(BPC00384, BPC00385, BPC00386, BPC00387.
3. George, M Dorothy (1870–1954). 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum'. London: The British Museum. BMSatires 7604.