Hot Loaves, St. Martin's Church, Cries of London, 1804

An original antique hand colored copper engraving of a London street seller, lettered "HOTLOAVES." below the image and "St. Martin's Church." in script above it. A baker's man in a white cap, buff jacket and blue breeches stoops under a large wicker basket covered with a cloth, carried on his back by a strap, a hand bell in one hand. Behind him rise the giant columns and steps of the church portico, with iron lamps on brackets.

The location "St. Martin's Church." is engraved in script at the top of the plate and the cry "HOTLOAVES." 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. St. Martin in the Fields, with its great columned portico, was built to designs by James Gibbs in the 1720s.

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.