Two men at a shop counter in a tea and coffee retail shop using scales to measure out coffee beans and "Two elderly men, whose family resemblance is pronounced, sit directed to the left, behind a counter running diagonally across the design. They are manipulating small scales; one (left) has his hand in a canister of 'Coffee'. Close behind them is the wall, showing the arrangement of a grocer's shop: deep drawers interspersed with shelves on which are sugar-loaves and canisters of tea. The latter are inscribed respectively: 'Hyson', 'Bloom', 'Hyson', '[Souc]hong', 'Congo', 'Bohea'."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Polite grocers of the Strand
Description:
Title etched below image., Artist attribution to Andrew Bell and printmaker attribution to Edmund Scott suggested in the British Museum online catalogue, registration no.: 1868,0808.7364, Sheet trimmed within plate mark on right side., "While [Dorothy] George identifies the brothers as John and Richard Twining, [Sir Ambrose] Heal identifies them as John and Aaron Trim, grocers and tea-dealers in the Strand. This is backed up by another plate in the Heal collection that names Aaron and John Trim under their portrait (see Heal,Portraits.194)."--Curator's comments, British Museum online catalogue, registration no.: Heal,Portraits.193., and Probably a plate from: Kirby's wonderful and eccentric musuem; or, Magazine of remarkable characters.
Publisher:
Published May 21, 1805, by R.S. Kirby, 11 London House Yard, St. Pauls
Subject (Geographic):
Strand, The (London, England), England, London, and The Strand.
Subject (Name):
Twining, Richard, 1749-1824., Twining, John, 1760-1827., Trim, Aaron, active 1793-1807., and Trim, John, active 1793-1807.
A fashionable family looks at a roll of wallpaper that the shop clerk is displaying to them. The shop owner jestures to the elaborately decorated pattern on the roll. Another clerk behind the counter looks on as he rolls another bolt
Handbill with a caption title., With a woodcut showing opened and closed umbrellas on either side of the royal coat of arms above title., and Ms. notes on verso: calculations in an unknown hand. For further information, consult library staff.
