Article

Scraps and Sketches: Miscellaneity, Commodity Culture and Comic Prints, 1820-40

Author: Brian Maidment

Abstract

This essay considers the emergent significance in the 1820s and 1830s of the market for engraved or lithographed images intended for use in albums and scrapbooks. Part of a wider development of the consumer culture for prints, scraps were a characteristic product in publishers' attempts to find a more varied and profitable market for their products. Largely derided by scholarly historians as trivial representatives of the debased and vulgar tastes consequent upon the democratization of the print market in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, the market in scraps nonetheless offers an important insight into the ways in which visual culture adapted to change in this period. In particular, scraps drew women more extensively into the market place for prints, and were crucial in the development of an illustrated periodical literature. After offering a brief overview of the scraps trade and some description of the ways in which images were assembled and deployed in albums, this essay goes on to consider the reasons for the lowly critical reputation of scraps in an attempt to reinsert this genre more adequately into the historical narrative of print culture.

Keywords:

How to Cite: Maidment, B. (2007) “Scraps and Sketches: Miscellaneity, Commodity Culture and Comic Prints, 1820-40”, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century.(5). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/ntn.462

  • Fig. 1 George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches (1832), title page, etching. Author's collection
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    Fig. 1
    George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches (1832), title page, etching. Author's collection
  • Fig. 2 George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches (1832), etching. Author's collection
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    Fig. 2
    George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches (1832), etching. Author's collection

    Plate 22 ‘Tell Tale', (1 September 1832).

  • Fig. 3 George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches (1832), etching. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 3
    George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches (1832), etching. Author's collection.

    Plate 2 ‘The Age of Intellect' (20 May 1828).

  • Fig. 4 George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches, (1832), etching. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 4
    George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches, (1832), etching. Author's collection.

    Plate 10 ‘London Going Out of Town' (1 November 1829).

  • Fig. 5 George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches, (1832), etching. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 5
    George Cruikshank, Scraps and Sketches, (1832), etching. Author's collection.

    Plate 5 ‘Ignorance is Bliss' (10 May 1828).

  • Fig. 6 Thomas Hood, The New Comic Annual, (Charles Tilt, 1834), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 6
    Thomas Hood, The New Comic Annual, (Charles Tilt, 1834), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    Frontispiece to volume 64.

  • Fig. 7 Thomas Hood, The Comic Annual, (Charles Tilt, 1834), wood engraving, 64. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 7
    Thomas Hood, The Comic Annual, (Charles Tilt, 1834), wood engraving, 64. Author's collection.
  • Fig. 8 Anon, ‘The Physiology of the Boyocracy', (13 August 1854), wood engravings by William Newman. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 8
    Anon, ‘The Physiology of the Boyocracy', (13 August 1854), wood engravings by William Newman. Author's collection.

    Taken from volume 12 of The Squib, p. 50.

  • Fig. 9 Anon, Lloyd's Songbook for 1849, (Edward Lloyd, 1849), anonymous wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 9
    Anon, Lloyd's Songbook for 1849, (Edward Lloyd, 1849), anonymous wood engraving. Author's collection.

    Title page to issue part 2.

  • Fig. 10 G. S. Tregear, Tregear's Scraps, (G. S. Tregear, 1830), lithograph. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 10
    G. S. Tregear, Tregear's Scraps, (G. S. Tregear, 1830), lithograph. Author's collection.

    Title page.

  • Fig. 11 Henry Heath, The Caricaturist's Scrapbook, (Charles Tilt, 1840). Author's collection.
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    Fig. 11
    Henry Heath, The Caricaturist's Scrapbook, (Charles Tilt, 1840). Author's collection.

    Title page.

  • Fig. 12 C. J. Grant, Everybody's Album, (J. Kendrick, 15 June 1834), lithograph. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 12
    C. J. Grant, Everybody's Album, (J. Kendrick, 15 June 1834), lithograph. Author's collection.
  • Fig. 13 Various authors, Bell's Life in London – A Victoria Scrapbook for 1837, (William Clement, 1837), wood engravings by John Leech. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 13
    Various authors, Bell's Life in London – A Victoria Scrapbook for 1837, (William Clement, 1837), wood engravings by John Leech. Author's collection.
  • Fig. 14 Robert Seymour, New Readings of Old Authors – Pericles, (Charles Tilt, n.d.), lithograph. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 14
    Robert Seymour, New Readings of Old Authors – Pericles, (Charles Tilt, n.d.), lithograph. Author's collection.
  • Fig. 15 Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.
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    Fig. 15
    Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.

    Scrapbook page comprising a central engraved image drawn from an unidentified series of Comic Scraps surrounded by wood engraved images from various sources including The New Comic Annual.

  • Fig. 16 Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.
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    Fig. 16
    Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.

    Detail from scrapbook leaf compiled entirely from images drawn from C. J. Grant's magazine Everybody's Album.

  • Fig. 17 Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.
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    Fig. 17
    Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.

    Scrapbook page made up of lithographs cut from Grant's magazines, wood engravings and text from Bell's Life in London, and engraved images from caricature plate.

  • Fig. 18 Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.
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    Fig. 18
    Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.

    Scrapbook page centred around C. J. Grant's lithographed ‘Frontispiece to the Singer's Penny Magazine' (G. Drake, 24 February 1835). Other images are drawn from Everybody's Album, The New Comic Annual and other unidentified sources.

  • Fig. 19 Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.
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    Fig. 19
    Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.

    Scrapbook page with an engraved political caricature surrounded by various wood-engraved vignettes and engraved scraps.

  • Fig. 20 Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.
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    Fig. 20
    Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.). Author's collection.

    Scrapbook page with an engraved sentimental image surrounded by various wood-engraved scraps.

  • Fig. 21 Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.), scrapbook page. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 21
    Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.), scrapbook page. Author's collection.
  • Fig. 22 Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.), scrapbook page. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 22
    Unattributed, Scrapbook, (n.d.), scrapbook page. Author's collection.