Prints of Pre-Photography London

Prints are $150 to $295, or $495 for a pair of silk prints

The "Cries of London" became a reoccurring theme in English printmaking that lasted over three centuries.

These colorful, sometimes humorous prints provide a pre-photography record of London's street merchants who depended on foot traffic to cobble together their meager living(s). Tradesmen, grocers and the like would advertise their wares with a melodic rhyme or ‘cry,’ not unlike “Extra, extra, read all about it.”

One of the most famous sets of such images was rendered by artist Francis Wheatley. The 14-piece series enjoyed a long successful run in the English print shops and hung at the Royal Academy from 1792-1795.

Lori Hedtler of on Charles Street has a lovely collection of prints and porcelain made from engravings of Wheatley’s work displayed on the mantelpiece in her store.

“The prints are on silk,” Hedtler explained. “In general, this sort of engraving was very meticulous work done with copper. The porcelain is unusually tricky since the surface isn’t flat. They used something similar to parchment paper when applying the basic image which then got fired-on in a kiln. Then they would hand-color the pieces afterwards.”

Hedtler said she suspects this particular series was done around the beginning of the twentieth century – reproductions, but antiques all the same.