All Resolutions
Artist
- Name:
- Leighton, John (aka Luke Limner)
- Dates:
- 1822-1912
- Country:
- UK
Illustration
- Subject:
- Buildings & monuments, People
- Technique:
- Etching
- Format:
- Portrait (taller)
- Source:
- Harold B. Lee Library, the Internet Archive
Book
- Title:
- London cries & public edifices
- Author(s):
- Leighton, John (aka Luke Limner)
- Publisher:
- London: Grant and Griffith, 1851
- Open Library:
- View record
Description
A young barefooted woman wearing a patched-up dress sells matches in front of the Bank of England. The book offers the following information:
Of all the poor itinerants of London the match-sellers are the poorest, and subsist as much by donations as by the sale of their wares. The old match, a splinter of wood, with ends dipped in brimstone, is fast disappearing before the modern lucifer or congreve*. The poor creature here represented is appealing to a lady and gentleman, (whose shadows are seen in the picture,) on their way to the Bank of England.
* Congreve was the name given, in honor of Sir William Congreve, to friction matches coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum. Lucifer matches were a variant of the congreves.
Keywords: 1850s, 19th century, black & white, cityscape, Europe, female, London, street, UK, Victorian
