Band Boxes, Tabart's Juvenile Library, Cries of London, 1804

An original antique hand colored copper engraving of a London street seller, lettered "BAND BOXES." below the image and "Tabarts Juvenile Library" in script above it. A young man in a black hat, yellow neckerchief, long brown coat and blue trousers walks to the left with a pole over his shoulder, hung on both sides with band boxes in pink, pale blue, lilac and a flowered pattern. Behind him is a shopfront with small paned windows and a doorway, its sign lettered "Bibliotheque d'Education" (Library of Education), with "BOND STREET" lettered on the wall above.

The location "Tabarts Juvenile Library" is engraved in script at the top of the plate and the cry "BAND BOXES." in open capitals at the bottom. Below the border, the lower left corner carries the artist credit "Craig-del." (meaning Craig drew it), and the center carries the imprint "Published April 25-1804, by Richard Phillips, 71, St. Paul's Church Yard.", dated April 25, 1804. No engraver is named. Benjamin Tabart's Juvenile Library in Bond Street was a bookshop devoted to books for children.

Modern London; Being the History and Present State of the British Metropolis was published in London in 1804, printed for Richard Phillips of No. 71, St. Paul's Church-Yard, by C. Mercier and Co., and "illustrated with numerous copper plates." Alongside its views of public buildings it carried a series of plates of the street traders of London, each showing a seller with his or her wares against a recognizable London setting, named in script above the image, with the trader's cry engraved below. William Marshall Craig, credited on the plate as the draftsman, was a London painter in watercolors and miniatures and a drawing master. His designs for the series record the dress, tools and goods of the people who sold in the streets of Georgian London, and they remain a valuable document of everyday life in the city at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Framed with a wide mat, it would sit well in a kitchen, hallway or study, or in a group with other London street cries.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.