Thomas Rowlandson’s Cries Of London

Only two more Whitechapel tours remaining on Sunday 20th September and Sunday 18th October. Tours include tea and freshly baked apple strudel at the Whitechapel Gallery. Click here to book I was passing Abbott & Holder, picture dealers in Museum St, on Thursday when I spied this splendid set of Thomas Rowlandson’s Cries of London from 1799 for sale in the window and – as I stood gazing – Tom Hunter, the proprietor, came out to say ‘hello’. For more than fifteen years I have been publishing sets of Cries of London in these pages but I had never seen this one before, so Tom agreed to let me show them to you here. With Rowlandson there is always more going on than first meets the eye and careful study of the background often reveals a wry commentary. ‘Buy a Trap, a Rat Trap, Buy My Trap’ ‘Hot Cross Bunns, Two A Penny Bunns’ ‘Do you want any Brick Dust?’ Brick dust was used for polishing pewter ‘All a growing, a growing, here’s Flowers for you’ ‘Last dying speech and Confession’ ‘Water…