[Sketches of English tavern scenes] [art original].

Three eighteenth-century scenes of English taverns, sketched by the Dutch artist Paul Duverger, presumably during a visit to England. The same character appears in two of the sketches, and is perhaps a depiction of a friend or fellow traveller, or Duverger himself. He is sketched in the only drawing to depict a single character, which shows a man contentedly sitting cross-legged and eating at a candlelit circular table. The man appears to carve himself a slice from a piece of meat on his plate; an empty bowl and glass stand beside a tall candlestick and holder, which itself stands on top of a piece of paper with the day’s menu. The other image depicting the same man includes another man, the two sitting on either side of a young woman, attentively competing for her affections; a pipe, candlesnuffer, knife and candlestick stand on the table in addition to a tankard, hastily sketched and unfinished. The final scene is of three men in tricorn hats and frock coats, sitting stiffly at a round table. One holds a staff and is without a drink; another, slightly more comfortably, holds a large tankard and looks questioningly towards his straight-backed companion. The third man sits almost sheepishly nursing a drink which sits on the table next to a candlestick