William Hogarth produced these prints to boost public morale when an invasion from France seemed probable.

Hogarth depicts the weak and emaciated army ready to invade England. The alehouse sign reading 'Meagre Soup at the Royal Comb' points this up. There is also an officer roasting four frogs on his sword. A further soldier carries a banner which reads 'Vengeance with the good beer and good beef of England'. There is also a portly monk (obviously the church folk won't be hungry), and he carries plans for a monastery to be built at Blackfriars.

In contrast he believed the English to be always well fed and always merry, despite the evidence of widespread poverty. Here a recruitment officer is shown measuring up a volunteer. The man has to stand on tiptoe to reach the required height. A round of beef and some porter is on the table in front of some revellers, one of whom is drawing a pastiche of the French King, who is uttering the words "You take my fine ships you bede pirate you bede Teef me send my grand armies and hang you all Morbleu."

Published to illustrate Seba's 'cabinet of curiosities' Framed

Published to illustrate Seba's 'cabinet of curiosities' Framed

Published to illustrate Seba's 'cabinet of curiosities' Framed

Born in Yarmouth, Reginald Mayes’ career began in the design studio of the Eastern Daily Press in Norwich. He moved to London where he designed water marks for paper manufacturers and studied life drawing at the Regent Street Polytechnic and Lithography under Gardiner, Clive. In the early 1930s he became chief staff artist at the London Midland and Scottish Railway public relations department, designing leaflets and posters. In the Second World War, Mayes produced a wide range of anti-travel and propaganda posters for the Railway Executive Committee. They discouraged railway travel with some humorous slogans such as ‘The signal is against holiday travel this Easter’. After the war he did freelance work before retiring to Kent where he relaxed painting landscapes.

From a set of framed original woodblock prints, c1898. With original mounted poem relating to the image on reverse. "When William Nicholson designed his stylish 'London Types' in 1898 - that together with his 'Almanac of Twelve Sports' and 'An Illustrated Alphabet' were to make his reputation as a printmaker - his son Ben, who was to eclipse him entirely in the history of British Art through his Modernist works, was only five years old. While working within the culture of the British popular print, William Nickerson deliberately chose to use the coarse-grained side of the wood block in his wood cuts, in a style that owed more to Toulouse Lautrec and Japanese precedents than to native visual traditions - which give these prints an innovative quality, even as they might seem to be celebrating unchanging roles in British society. Although not strictly 'Cries of London,' some of these characters are familiar from earlier series of prints stretching back over the previous centrury and, recognising this, Nicholson portrays them as quaint curiosities from another age. In each case, the ironic doggerel by W.E. Henley that accompanied them poked fun at the anachronistic nature of these social stereotypes, through outlining the ambivalent existence of the individual subjects - whether the street hawker displaced in Kensington far from his East End home, or the aristocratic lady at Rotten Row challenged by her suburban counterparts, or the drunken Sandwich-man displaying moral texts, or the fifteenth generation Bluecoat boy at Charterhouse School in Smithfield now moved out to Horsham." - The Gentle Author.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries this type of poster was a ubiquitous feature of every corner shop, café and public house. Printed with wood block type onto poor quality newsprint paper they were a transient form of advertising designed to be used then discarded, so hardly any originals exist. These reproductions are based on some surviving originals printed by London firm of Samuel Reeves Ltd, which have been scanned, restored and reprinted onto fine art paper using archival quality ink. Framed

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries this type of poster was a ubiquitous feature of every corner shop, café and public house. Printed with wood block type onto poor quality newsprint paper they were a transient form of advertising designed to be used then discarded, so hardly any originals exist. These reproductions are based on some surviving originals printed by London firm of Samuel Reeves Ltd, which have been scanned, restored and reprinted onto fine art paper using archival quality ink. Framed

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries this type of poster was a ubiquitous feature of every corner shop, café and public house. Printed with wood block type onto poor quality newsprint paper they were a transient form of advertising designed to be used then discarded, so hardly any originals exist. These reproductions are based on some surviving originals printed by London firm of Samuel Reeves Ltd, which have been scanned, restored and reprinted onto fine art paper using archival quality ink. Framed

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries this type of poster was a ubiquitous feature of every corner shop, café and public house. Printed with wood block type onto poor quality newsprint paper they were a transient form of advertising designed to be used then discarded, so hardly any originals exist. These reproductions are based on some surviving originals printed by London firm of Samuel Reeves Ltd, which have been scanned, restored and reprinted onto fine art paper using archival quality ink. Framed

original copper engraving, published circa 1685.

reproduction based on the 1765 work by the Rev. Middleton. In black frame. 'Facing Muscle Plate LX'.

framed.