Cheap Print

Crudely printed on poor quality paper and carelessly hand-coloured, the trade in cheap prints depicting ‘popular’ songs and secular folk subjects flourished across Europe from the sixteenth century. Initially sold door to door by peddlers, known as chapmen or hawkers, and later by small specialist shopkeepers, cheap prints catered largely to the working poor and were, by the eighteenth century, an important part of a large print publishing industry in Britain.

The contribution of artists, designers, and printmakers were rarely credited on cheap prints. In this group, only the name and retail address of the central London publisher Thomas Evans appears in the margin of the sheets. Although printed in relatively vast numbers, because cheap prints were produced as entertainments and not as works of art designed to be collected, extant examples from this period are uncommon. These works survived in the collection of Richard Lane, a member of the Lane family of publishers who founded Penguin Books in London in 1935. The inclusion of cheap prints among the ‘old masters’ of the Prints and Drawings Collection provides opportunity for important comparisons to be studied between artistic intention and commercial imperative, craftsmanship and materials, aesthetic judgement and cultural influence.

  • Aged page of book featuring coloured engraving of man and woman at shop counter

    Thomas Evans (publisher)
    England, active 1803-1815

    The odd-dealer, 1807
    Hand-coloured etching

    Prints and Drawings Collection
    Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program by Elizabeth Lane in memory of Richard Lane, 2021

  • Leaf from an aged book featuring hand coloured engraving titled John Grouse and Mother Goose

    Thomas Evans (publisher)
    England, active 1803-1815

    John Grouse & Mother Goose, 1807
    Hand-coloured etching

    Prints and Drawings Collection
    Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program by Elizabeth Lane in memory of Richard Lane, 2021

  • Single leaf of paper from aged book featuring hand coloured etching of small number of figures.

    Thomas Evans (publisher)
    England, active 1803-1815

    Widow Waddle, of Chickabiddy-Lane, 1807
    Hand-coloured etching

    Prints and Drawings Collection
    Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program by Elizabeth Lane in memory of Richard Lane, 2021

  • Hand coloured etching of young man entering an open doorway that a woman is exiting, in period dress.

    Thomas Evans (publisher)
    England, active 1803-1815

    The shipwrecked cabin-boy, sung by Master Smalley, in Mother Goose, 1808
    Hand-coloured etching

    Prints and Drawings Collection
    Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program by Elizabeth Lane in memory of Richard Lane, 2021

  • Hand coloured etching of man standing in landscape with seated figure under tree

    Thomas Evans (publisher)
    England, active 1803-1815

    The conjuror, c. 1805/06
    Hand-coloured etching

    Prints and Drawings Collection
    Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program by Elizabeth Lane in memory of Richard Lane, 2021

  • Hand coloured etching of man and woman fighting in domestic scene.

    Thomas Evans (publisher)
    England, active 1803-1815

    The scolding wife, c. 1805/06
    Hand-coloured etching

    Prints and Drawings Collection
    Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program by Elizabeth Lane in memory of Richard Lane, 2021

  • Hand coloured etching of young woman standing in front of a cottage, in pink dress and bonnet,

    Thomas Evans (publisher)
    England, active 1803-1815

    Lilies and roses, c. 1805/06
    Hand-coloured etching

    Prints and Drawings Collection
    Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program by Elizabeth Lane in memory of Richard Lane, 2021

  • Nineteenth century cheap print on yellowing paper, showing a cartouche with male and female figures in Georgiandress

    Thomas Evans (publisher)
    England, active 1803-1815

    The girl of my heart., c. 1806/07
    Hand-coloured etching

    Prints and Drawings Collection
    Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program by Elizabeth Lane in memory of Richard Lane, 2021