Hair Brooms, Shoreditch Church, Cries of London, 1804

An original antique hand colored copper engraving of a London street seller, lettered "HAIR BROOMS." below the image and "Shoreditch Church" in script above it. A man in a black hat, long brown coat, red waistcoat and green breeches walks toward the viewer with a bundle of long handled brooms and brushes over his shoulder and baskets and sieves hanging from his arm. Behind him are the classical portico and tower of the church, flanked by tall poplars, with railings along the street.

The location "Shoreditch Church" is engraved in script at the top of the plate and the cry "HAIR BROOMS." 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. Shoreditch Church is St. Leonard's, rebuilt to designs by George Dance the Elder in the 1730s and 1740s.

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.