Do you want any brick-dust

description below

“A pretty young maidservant stands on a doorstep (right) while a man, Irish in appearance, gazes insinuatingly into her face as he fills her bowl with brick-dust from a jar. He has an ass which stands patiently, a double sack pannier-wise across his back and a second jar or measure standing on the sack. The profile of a shrewish old woman looks through the door at the couple, who are intent on each other. A dog barks at the girl. Behind is a street, the nearer houses tall the farther ones lower and gabled. At the doorway opposite a woman appears to be giving food to a poor woman and child. A man and woman lean from the attic windows of adjacent houses to converse. A little chimney-sweep emerges from a chimney, waving his brush.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Merke, Henri, printmaker.
  • Title: Do you want any brick-dust [graphic] / Rowlandson delin. ; Merke sculp.
  • Publication: London : Pub. Feb. 20, 1799, at R. Ackermann’s, 101 Strand, [20 February 1799]

Catalog Record

799.02.20.03+

Acquired April 2023

Perspective view of the outside of the Royal Exchange in London

description below

“Exterior view of the Royal Exchange; looking down a busy street with carriages, carts and pedestrians, St Paul’s Cathedral in the distance to the left, the prominent entrance of the Royal Exchange with tower to right; in right foreground a man enters a shop with the sign “John’s Coffee”; after Loutherbourg and Chapman; published etched state.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Bartolozzi, Francesco, 1727-1815, printmaker.
  • Title: To the Right Honorable William Pitt, first Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, Principal Secretary of State, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, this accurate perspective view of the outside of the Royal Exchange in London is (by permission) humbly dedicated by his most grateful, obedient, and most obliged humble servant, J. Chapman [graphic] / the delineation by Mr. Chapman, the figures by Lutherburgh, the graving of the plates by Bartolozzi.
  • Publication: [London] : Published as the act directs August 12, 1788, & sold by Mr. Chapman at Mr. Christie’s, Pall Mall, [12 August 1788]

Catalog Record

788.08.12.01++

Acquired April 2023

William Darton, bookseller

description below

A view from the street of the bookseller William Darton’s shop at No. 58 Holborn in London, with the shop window filled with prints and books. Above the windows Darton advertises the scope of his wares: “Books in all languages on the arts, sciences &c.; Maps, plans, charts, prints & games; Works of merit soon as published. A woman and two children are shown looking in the windows while a second woman and child are shown entering the shop. A horse-drawn carriage enters the scene from the right. On the left, a man sits beside a lamppost with a basker and dog at his side.

  • Title: William Darton, bookseller [graphic].
  • Publication: London : William Darton, 58, Holborn Hill, 1822, where may be had maps and prints wholesale, [1822]

Catalog Record

File 66 822 W716

Acquired November 2021

A harlot’s progress. Plate I

description belowA copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 1 of A harlot’s progress: A scene outside the Bell Inn: a country girl, Moll Hackabout, having just arrived on the York Wagon (seen on the right), meets an extravagantly dressed bawd (Mother Needham); a clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter, but a lecherous old gentleman (Colonel Charteris) eyes the girl with anticipation. In the lower left the girl’s initials “H.M.” (M[ary?] Hackabout, initials reversed on this copy) are on her portmanteau, next to which is a basket with a goose with a note around its neck, “For my Loving Cosen in Tems Stret in London”, presumably the person who has failed to meet her. In the background a woman hangs out her laundry on a balcony. A clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter as his horse feeds on hay next to the wagon. In the back of the wagon, four other country girls sit holding onto a rail.

  • Title: A harlot’s progress. Plate I [graphic] : Innocence betrayed, or The journey to London = L’innocence trahie, ou, Le voyage de Londres / invented & painted by Wm. Hogarth.
  • Publication: [London] : [publisher not identified], [not before 25 March 1768]

Catalog Record

Hogarth 768.03.25.09+ Box 210

Acquired December 2019

Vue perspective du Couvent Garden

A perspective view, or vues d’optique, of the Covent Garden Market, looking towards Inigo Jones’s St. Paul’s Church, which is situated slightly to the right of center; in the foreground are shown vendors, carriages, pedestrians and other street life. The image is reversed for viewing through the lens of a Zograscope and designed to give the illusion of a deeper perspective, enhanced by the deep vanishing point and bright colour of the print.

  • TitleVue perspective du Couvent Garden [graphic].
  • PublicationA Paris : Chez J. Chereau Rue St. Jacques au desses de la Fontaine St. Severin aux a Colonnes No. 257, [ca. 1790]

Catalog Record

790.00.00.89+

Acquired November 2017

Water cresses, come buy my water cresses

lwlpr34239 (833x1024)

“A decrepit old man stands at the door of a house of ill fame at the corner of Portland Street; Mrs Burke is on the door-plate. One hand is on the knocker; he turns to scowl at a woman (right) who holds out a bunch of water-cress from a large shallow basket slung from the hip. A child clings to her shoulders; a little girl (left) with a small basket also offers him a bunch. Two young courtesans lean from a first-floor window. In the background (right), behind a spiked gate, are trees and a large house (or houses).”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • PrintmakerMerke, Henri, printmaker.
  • TitleWater cresses, come buy my water cresses [graphic] / Rowlandson delin. ; Merke sculp.
  • PublicationLondon : Pub. Mar. 1, 1799, at R. Ackermann’s, 101 Strand, [1 March 1799]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

799.03.01.06+

Acquired March 2016

The drunkard’s progress

lwlpr33541 (1024x819)

A city scene with a line of poor men, women, and children lined up from a money lender’s shop to the “Temple of Juniper: Best gin”. In the background crowds stand at the doorways of the workhouse (right) and the county gaol (left).

  • PrintmakerGrant, C. J. (Charles Jameson), active 1830-1852.
  • TitleThe drunkard’s progress [graphic] : from the pawnbroker’s to the gin shop from thence to the workhouse thence to the goal & ultimately to the scaffold.
  • Publication[London] : [J. Kendrick], January 1st, 1834.

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

834.01.01.01

Acquired January 2016

Hot cross bunns, two a penny bunns

lwlpr34238 (811x1024)

“A stout and burly woman stands at a street-door with a large basket of buns. A young woman and three children buy; the children help themselves, the woman holds a plate which she fills with buns. In the background (left) is a Georgian church with pediment and cupola; a fat parson in his surplice hurries along to escape from a woman and two children, who beg from him.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • PrintmakerMerke, Henri, printmaker.
  • TitleHot cross bunns, two a penny bunns [graphic] / Rowlandson delin. ; Merke sculp.
  • PublicationLondon : Pubd. May 4, 1799, at Ackermann’s Gallery, 101 Strand, [4 May 1799]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

799.05.04.01+

Acquired March 2016

A treaty of commerce

lwlpr32598 (740x1024)

A street scene with a row of buildings in the background, a man who is having his boots polished by a boy crouched before his bench turns to an elegantly dressed lady. He hold his hat and cane in his rights hand and offers a coin to the woman.

  • TitleA treaty of commerce [graphic].
  • Publication:[London: Published 1st Novr. 1797 by Laurie & Whittle, No. 53 Fleet Street, London, 1 November 1797]

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

797.11.01.01

Acquired July 2015

The Piccadilly nuisance!

Click for larger image

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, printmaker.
  • Title: The Piccadilly nuisance! [graphic] : dedicated to the worthy, acting magistrates of the district / G. Cruikshank sculpt.
  • Published: [London] : Pubd. by Thos. McLean, 26 Haymarket, Augt. 1st, 1835.

Catalog Record & Digital Collection

835.08.01.50+

Acquired April 2013