Gabriel Shear Tregear, also known as Gabriel Shire Tregear, was an English publisher of caricatures and prints. Active from the late 1820s until his death, he operated his "Humorous and Sporting Print Shop" from quarters near today's 123 Cheapside, London. Artists and caricaturists published by Tregear included a member of the Cruikshank family of caricaturists, Isaac Robert Cruikshank. In 1821 Tregear married Ann McLean, sister of printseller and publisher Thomas McLean, with whom he was to have thirteen children. In 1823 he published the third edition of Francis B. Spilsburyʼs "Picturesque Scenery in the Holy Land and Syria" from an address in Southwark. By 1826 he had moved to Drury Lane, and published caricatures and other prints from St Peter's Alley, Cornhill. In 1827-1828 he published sporting and theatrical prints from 104 St Martins Lane. From 1828-1835 he occupied number 123 on the northwestern corner of Cheapside and Wood Street. This building has since been demolished, but during his day the printshop window was crowded with caricatures. The Times of 7 May 1832 reports: A policeman was subsequently stationed on the corner and Tregear forced to reduce the number of prints displayed. In 1834 he moved to 96 Cheapside, where he worked until his death in 1841. He died on 21 February 1841, at 18 Goulden Terrace, Islington, of influenza, and was buried at St. Martin in the Fields in Camden Town. His widow continued to operate the business with Thomas Crump Lewis as Tregear & Lewis, also selling musical instruments. The firm went bankrupt in 1844. Tregear published many series, of which Flights of Humour appears to be the longest, running to 95 prints or more. They are generally undated. The "Rum Jokes" series ran to at least 43 prints, and cover hunting, shooting, and fishing, plus racing events, skating, billiards and the building trade. His "Black Jokes" were described in an advertisement as "being a Series of Laughable Caricatures on the March of Manners Amongst the Blacks."
Tregear's Black Jokes
Produced from drawings by a W. Summers, these caricatures of black life included about 19 images, of which the following are known:
