Old English Cuts and Illustrations: for Artists and Craftspeople (Dover Pictorial Archive)

A rich source of striking imagery, this compilation of 163 black-and-white prints was reproduced from a rare collection of 18th-century broadsides. Illustrations include folkloric characters (Peggy Bacon-face, Bet Boozer, Sir John Falstaff) as well as animals, ships, soldiers, traditional English heroes and members of the royal family, and other distinctive graphics. 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.By a fortunate chance, a unique collection of late-18th-century