Open Writing

The framed photograph of the World Trade Center sat in the Durham art shop window for at least a year. Before the 9/11 attacks not many people in the English cathedral city would have recognized the Twin Towers, but after, there would have been few who didn't.

Whoever put the picture up must have imagined a certain sort of customer; perhaps someone who admired America or had an interest in the War on Terror. It was a miscalculation because the photo didn't sell. I suspect it was overpriced.

In the second half of the 17th century there were also shopkeepers who took gambles on their customers' interest in world events. Instead of photographs they sold prints: woodcuts, engravings and mezzotints.

The English print trade was based in London and had close ties with its counterparts in other European cities like Amsterdam and Paris. Engravers trained in the Netherlands and France came to London and made a significant contribution to English production. Among them were the Dutchman Abraham Blooteling and the Frenchman Peter Vandrebanc.

In the late 17th century the English trade was dwarfed by its continental cousins. This meant that there was plenty of room for a flourishing business in imported prints; which introduced new design ideas into English visual arts. Anthony Wells-Cole examines the influence of continental design in his book, Art and Decoration in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

Prints served a variety of purposes in 17th-century England. Some people, like the diarist Samuel Pepys, made print collections and pasted them into albums. These can be seen today by special request in the Pepys library of Magdalene College, Cambridge University.

Others prints were displayed on walls. In the following advertisement, published in the government's official newspaper, The London Gazette, on Nov. 22, 1708, the retailer recommends that the prints are suitable for display on walls.
"The twelve Half-length Figures of Sir Anthony Van-dyke, curiously engraved by the late Mr.Peter Lombart; being one of the best Performance in Graving, and very proper to adorn any Rooms, Closets, & c. are sold by S.Gribelin, living at the corner House of Banbury-court in Long-Acre; also by Mr Ch.Mather near Temple-bar in Fleet-street; and by most Print-shops in London and Westminster. Price one Guinea."

Prints were also used as patterns for craftsmen and women, who copied the images into other mediums. The print publisher Robert Walton summarized the uses of prints in the preface to his 1666 marketing catalogue.

"A Catalogue of divers Maps, Pictures, Coppy-Books, Books of Beasts, Birds, Flowers, Fish, Fruites, Flies, neatly cut in Copper, and worth buying; being very pleasant Ornaments for Houses, Studies and Closets; and also extraordinary useful for Goldsmiths, Jewelers, Chasers, Gravers, Painters, Carvers, Embroiderers, Drawers, Needle-women, and all Handicrafts; the which are Printed, Coloured, and to be sold by Robert Walton, at the Globe and Compasses in St. Paul's Church-Yard, near the great North-Door."

Shops that dealt with nothing but prints did not emerge until the 18th century. In 17th-century London prints were sold alongside an assortment of goods including books, maps, paintings and equipment for artists. In the introduction to his 1675 marketing catalogue Arthur Tooker described himself and his business thus:

"Stationer at the Globe over against Salisbury House in the Strand, where you may have choice of Maps, and also Italian, German, and the Low Countrey Prints, Indian Ink, Abortive Skins, all sorts of Paintings, and all Stationary Wares."
Prints were sold by specialist print publishers, book publishers, mapmakers and businesses that retailed but did not publish. On Oct. 6, 1692, an advertisement appeared in The London Gazette for a naval print sold by a goldsmith.
"There is lately Printed the Section of a First Rate Ship; Explaining all Parts thereof well Engraved, after the Design of Captain Tho.Phillips, 2d Engenier of England. Sold at the sign of the Golden Key, a Goldsmith, over against Exeter-Change in the Strand."

One of the most famous booksellers involved in the production and sale of prints was Jacob Tonson, secretary of the Kit-Cat club and publisher of works by Dryden, Pope, Steele and Addison. After the death of Dryden, Tonson had the following advertisement for a portrait print placed in The Post Boy of May 14, 1700.

"The Effigies of Mr John Dryden, lately deceased, drawn from the Life by Sir Godfry Kneller, and Engraven at Paris by the famous Hand of Monsieur Eldelnick. Sold by Jacob Tonson, at Grays-Inn-Gate in Grays-Inn-Lane."
From the evidence of surviving prints and advertising material it is clear that the majority of print selling businesses were run by men. Women were certainly also involved in the trade. For example, as the wives of shopkeepers they assisted in the work, and as their widows they took control of businesses in their own names. Women would also have been among those who hawked prints in the streets.

On Dec. 15, 1711 the following advertisement for a portrait print was published in The London Gazette for the bookseller Ann Speed. (Some of the books she published survive in university collections to this day.) This advertisement is interesting because it shows us that customers could pay extra if they wanted the print to be framed and protected by glass.

"Lately Publish'd, the exact Effigies of the Right Rev. Father in God William Lord Bishop of Chester, drawn from the Original Painting of Mr Thomas Murry; done from the Life, and curiously engraven on a large Copper Plate by Mr Vertue, from the said Painting. Price in a Sheet 1 s. in a Frame 2s. in a Frame and Glass 3s. 6d. Printed for the sole Proprietor, An Speed. Bookseller at the three Crowns in Exchange ally, in Cornhill."

Most of the prints that were sold in 17th-century England are now lost to us. As fragile paper objects they were vulnerable to dirt, fire and other hazards. They were even recycled for practical purposes, such as baking, when paper was in short supply. Yet we still know a substantial amount about the types of prints that people bought.