Baskets, Whitfield's Tabernacle, Cries of London, 1804

An original antique hand colored copper engraving of a London street seller, lettered "BASKETS!" below the image and "Whitfield's Tabernacle" in script above it. A boy in a black hat, red neckerchief, green waistcoat, bright blue coat and buff breeches stands facing the viewer, his back stacked high with wicker baskets of many shapes and two small baskets held in one hand. Behind him is a brick chapel with a tiled roof and arched windows, iron railings and a row of posts along the pavement.

The location "Whitfield's Tabernacle" is engraved in script at the top of the plate and the cry "BASKETS!" 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. Pauls Church Yard.", dated April 25, 1804. No engraver is named. The Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road was built for the preacher George Whitefield, whose name the lettering spells "Whitfield".

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.

It pairs naturally with other plates from the series and would make a lively addition to a wall of London subjects.

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