Brick Dust, Portman Square, Cries of London, 1804

An original antique hand colored copper engraving of a London street seller, lettered "BRICK DUST." below the image and "Portman Square." in script above it. A youth in a black hat, red coat and breeches stands beside a gray horse with a red cloth over its back, one hand raised to his ear as he calls and a small measure held in the other. Iron railings curve away on the left, and beyond them stand the large pale stone fronts of the houses of the square.

The location "Portman Square." is engraved in script at the top of the plate and the cry "BRICK DUST." 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. Brick dust was sold in the streets for scouring knives and other household metalwork.

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.