Robert Sayer (1725–1794) was a leading publisher and seller of prints, maps and maritime charts in Georgian Britain.

Beneath those pictures appeared some descriptive lines of verse, and as the reader turned up the flaps in the correct order in the text difference scenes were revealed.”[7] Originally called “metamorphosis”, Sayer would create books featuring the “Harlequins” from popular theater pantomimes.

[12] In the United States, Joseph Rakestraw published "Metamorphosis; or, a Transformation of Pictures, with Poetical Explanations, for the Amusement of Young Persons," by Benjamin Sands.

[13] Behind the family group is the substantial villa on Richmond Hill overlooking the River Thames, built for Sayer between 1777 and 1780 to the designs of William Eves, a little-known architect and property developer.

From 1794, after Robert Sayer's death, the house was the country residence for three years of the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) and Mrs Jordan, and their three eldest (of ten) children.

Having fallen into disrepair, the house was demolished in 1970 when it was unknown that it had been built for Sayer and that it had subsequently been the home of a future king of Great Britain.