"A street scene at the corner of 'Petticoat Lane' (left) and 'Smock Alley' (right). An ugly and bedizened woman wearing pattens, holding an umbrella and kilting up her skirt, walks painfully over the cobbles, bending forward; her stockings heavily spattered with mud; her breast and arms are bare except for a scarf looped over her shoulders. Heavy slanting rain descends; it pours from the hat of an old woman (left), who stoops over a heavy basket she is carrying. Above her head a woman leans from a window, emptying a chamber-pot. Behind (right), two scavengers shovel mud into a cart. The houses are old and dilapidated, with casement windows. The lantern-sign of a penny-barber (cf. British Museum Satires No. 7605) hangs from a pent-house projection, inscribed 'Shave . . .' There is no pavement, but a solid post (left) protects a large grating let into the cobbles."--British museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., and Temporary local subject terms: Pattens -- Lantern -- Petticoat Lane.
Publisher:
Publish'd February 10th, 1812, by H. Humphrey, No. 27 St. James's Street
