Catchpenny prints: 163 popular engravings from the eighteenth century, originally published by Bowles and Carver

Abstract

Before the invention of photography, in the days when illustrated books were inordinately costly, one means of satisfying the universal human desire for pictures was the so-called "catch-penny." This was an engraved sheet of paper, sometimes filled with illustrations, sometimes with verse, sometimes with both, but hawked on the streets of London for a penny. Millions of these broadsides must have been printed in the 18th century, but most of them have perished or lie inaccessible in the print collection of the great libraries. Plebeian humor, vital, earthy, is the chief characteristic of this range of prints: familiar types of the day, perhaps individuals (Peggy Bacon-face, Squire Somebody, Bet Boozer); the characters of literature (Sir John Falstaff, in a particularly gross form); birds and animals, by artists who surely never saw them; children's born-book sheets, with alphabets, objects to be spelled, early nursery rhymes, including the first appearance of certain Mother Goose rhymes; ladies of fashion; Captain Macheath and Lucy Locket from The Beggar's Opera; great ships; trades, occupations, street cries; the Royal Family; the traditional heroes of England; puzzle pictures -- find the giant; soldiers; The Wonderful Pig; and a host of others.