Bellows to Mend, Smithfield, Cries of London, 1804

An original antique hand colored copper engraving of a London street seller, lettered "BELLOWS TO MEND." below the image and "Smithfield" in script above it. A young man in a round hat, red coat and blue breeches walks to the left with a stick in his hand, a pair of bellows under one arm and a black bag slung over his shoulder. Behind him a long low cart piled with a load colored green stands on the cobbles before a row of brick houses with sash windows.

The location "Smithfield" is engraved in script at the top of the plate and the cry "BELLOWS TO MEND." 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 Augst. 25 1804 by Richard Phillips 71 St. Pauls Church Yard", dated August 25, 1804. No engraver is named. Smithfield, just outside the old City wall, was London's principal livestock market and also a market for hay.

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.

The small format, double ruled border and fresh coloring suit a single frame or a group of street cries hung together.

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