University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF PICTURES IN
FRAMES.

From about 1810, or somewhat earlier, down
to 1830, or somewhat later, the street-sale of
pictures in frames was almost entirely in the
hands of the Jews. The subjects were then
nearly all scriptural: "The Offering up of
Isaac;" "Jacob's Dream;" "The Crossing
of the Red Sea;" "The Death of Sisera;"
and "The Killing of Goliath from the Sling
of the youthful David." But the Jew traders
did not at all account it necessary to confine
the subjects of their pictures to the records
of the Old — their best trade was in the illus-
trations of the New Testament. Perhaps the
"Stoning of St. Stephen" was their most
saleable "picture in a frame." There were
also "The Nativity;" "The Slaying of
the Children, by order of Herod" (with the
quotation of St. Matthew, chap. ii. verse 17,
"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by
Jeremy the prophet"); "The Sermon on the
Mount;" "The Beheading of John the Baptist;"
"The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem;" "The
Raising of Lazarus;" "The Betrayal on the
part of Judas;" "The Crucifixion;" and "The
Conversion of St. Paul." There were others,
but these were the principal subjects. All
these pictures were coloured, and very deeply
coloured. St. Stephen was stoned in the lightest
of sky-blue short mantles. The pictures were
sold in the streets of London, mostly in the way
of hawking; but ten times as extensively, I am
told, in the country, as in town. Indeed, at
the present time, many a secluded village ale-
house has its parlour walls decorated with these
scriptural illustrations, which seem to have
superseded.

mentioned by Goldsmith as characteristic of a
village inn. These "Jew pictures" are now
yielding to others.

Most of these articles were varnished, and 2s. or 2s. 6d. each was frequently the price asked,
1s. 6d. being taken "if no better could be
done," and sometimes 1s. A smaller amount
per single picture was always taken, if a set
were purchased. These productions were pre-
pared principally for street-sale and for hawkers.
The frames were narrower and meaner-looking
than in the present street-pictures of the kind;
they were stained like the present frames, in imi-
tation of maple, but far less skilfully. Some-
times they were a black japan; sometimes a
sorry imitation of mahogany.

In the excitement of the Reform Bill era, the
street-pictures in frames most in demand were
Earl Grey, Earl Spencer's (or Lord Althorp),
Lord Brougham's, and Lord John Russell's.
O'Connell's also "sold well," as did William
IV. "Queen Adelaide," I was told, "went
off middling, not much more than half as good
as William." Towards the close of King Wil-
liam's life, the portraits of the Princess Vic-
toria of Kent were of good sale in the streets,
and her Royal Highness was certainly repre-
sented as a young lady of undue plumpness,
and had hardly justice done to her portraiture.
The Duchess of Kent, also, I was informed,
"sold fairish in the streets." In a little time,
the picture in a frame of the Princess Victoria
of Kent, with merely an alteration in the title,
became available as Queen Victoria I., of Great
Britain and Ireland. Since that period, there
have been the princes and princesses, her Ma-
jesty's offspring, who present a strong family
resemblance.

The street pictures, so to speak, are not un-
frequently of a religious character. Pictures
of the Virgin and Child, of the Saviour seated
at the Last Supper, of the Crucifixion, or of
the different saints, generally coloured. The
principal purchasers of these "religious pic-
tures" are the poorer Irish. I remember see-
ing, in the course of an inquiry among street-
performers last summer, the entire wall of a
poor street-dancer's one room, except merely
the space occupied by the fireplace, covered
with small coloured pictures in frames, the
whole of which, the proprietor told me, with
some pride, he had picked up in the streets,
according as he could spare a few pence. Among
them were a crucifix (of bone), and a few me-
dallions, of a religious character, in plaster or
wax. This man was of Italian extraction; but
I have seen the same thing in the rooms of the
Roman Catholic Irish, though never to the
same extent.

The general subjects now most in demand for
street-sale are, "Lola Montes," "Louis Philippe
and his Queen," "The Sailor's Return," "The
Soldier's Return," and the "Parting" of the
same individuals, Smugglers, in different situa-
tions, Poachers also; "Turpin's Ride to York,"
the divers feats attributed to Jack Sheppard (but
less popular than "Turpin's Ride,") "Court-
ship," "Marriage" (the one a couple caressing,
and the other bickering), "Father Mathew" (in
very black large boots), "Napoleon Bonaparte
crossing the Alps," and his "Farewell to his
Troops at Fontainebleau," "Scenes of Piracy."
None of these subjects are modern; "Lola
Montes" (a bold-faced woman, in a riding-

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habit), being the newest. "Why," said one
man familiar with the trade, "there hasn't
been no Louis Napoleon in a frame-picture for
the streets, nor Cobdens, nor Feargus O'Con-
nors, nor Sir John Franklins; what is wanted
for us is something exciting."

The prices of frame-pictures (as I sometimes
heard them called) made expressly for street-
sale, vary from 1d. to 1s. a pair. The 1d. a pair
are about six inches by four, very rude, and on
thin paper, and with frames made of lath-wood
(stained), but put together very compactly.
The cheaper sorts are of prints bought at the
swag-shops, or of waste-dealers, sometimes
roughly coloured, and sometimes plain. The
greatest sale is of those charged from 2d. to 4d. the pair.

Some of the higher-priced pictures are painted
purposely for the streets, but are always copies
of some popular engraving, and their sale is not
a twentieth of the others. These frame-pictures
were, and are, generally got up by a family, the
girls taking the management of the paper-work,
the boys of the wood. The parents have, many
of them, been paper-stainers. This division of
labour is one reason of the exceeding cheapness
of this street branch of the fine arts. These
working artists — or whatever they are to be
called — also prepare and frame for street-sale
the plates given away in the first instance with
a number of a newspaper or a periodical, and
afterwards "to be had for next to nothing."
The prevalence of such engravings has tended
greatly to diminish the sale of the pictures pre-
pared expressly for the streets.

Ten years ago this trade was ten times greater
than it is now. The principal sale still is, and
always was, at the street-markets on Saturday
evenings. They are sold piled on a small stall,
or carried under the arm. To sell 10s. worth on
a Saturday night is an extraordinary sale, and
2s. 6d. is a bad one, and the frame-picturer
must have "middling patter to set them off at
all. `Twopence a pair!' he'll say; `only two-
pence a pair! Who'd be without an ornament
to his dwelling?' "

There are now about fifty persons engaged in
this sale on a Saturday night, of whom the
majority are the artists or preparers of the pic-
tures. On a Monday evening there are about
twenty sellers; and not half that number on
other evenings — but some "take a round in the
suburbs."

If these people take 10s. weekly for frame-
pictures the year through, 1,040l. is yearly
expended in this way. I estimate the average
number at twenty daily. Their profits are
about cent. per cent.; boys and working people
buy the most. The trade is often promoted by
a raffle at a public-house. Many mechanics,
I was told, now frame their own pictures.