FROM about , or somewhat earlier, down to , or somewhat later, the street-sale of pictures in frames was almost entirely in the hands of the Jews. The subjects were then nearly all scriptural: "The Offering up of Isaac;" "Jacob's Dream;" "The Crossing of the Red Sea;" "The Death of Sisera;" and "The Killing of Goliath from the Sling of the youthful David." But the Jew traders did not at all account it necessary to confine the subjects of their pictures to the records of the Old—their best trade was in the illustrations of the New Testament. Perhaps the "Stoning of St. Stephen" was their most saleable "picture in a frame." There were also "The Nativity;" "The Slaying of the Children, by order of Herod" (with the quotation of St. Matthew, chap. ii. verse , "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet"); "The Sermon on the Mount;" "The Beheading of John the Baptist;" "The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem;" "The Raising of Lazarus;" "The Betrayal on the part of Judas;" "The Crucifixion;" and "The Conversion of St. Paul." There were others, but these were the principal subjects. All these pictures were coloured, and very deeply coloured. St. Stephen was stoned in the lightest of sky-blue short mantles. The pictures were sold in the streets of London, mostly in the way of hawking; but times as extensively, I am told, in the country, as in town. Indeed, at the present time, many a secluded village alehouse has its parlour walls decorated with these scriptural illustrations, which seem to have superseded

The pictures placed for ornament and use;

The twelve good rules; the royal game of goose,

Most of these articles were varnished, and or each was frequently the price asked, being taken "if no better could be done," and sometimes A smaller amount per single picture was always taken, if a set were purchased. These productions were prepared principally for street-sale and for hawkers. The frames were narrower and meaner-looking than in the present street-pictures of the kind; they were stained like the present frames, in imitation of maple, but far less skilfully. Sometimes they were a black japan; sometimes a sorry imitation of mahogany.

In the excitement of the Reform Bill era, the street-pictures in frames most in demand were Earl Grey, Earl Spencer's (or Lord Althorp), Lord Brougham's, and Lord John Russell's. O'Connell's also "sold well," as did William IV. "Queen Adelaide," I was told, "went off middling, not much more than half as good as William." Towards the close of King William's life, the portraits of the Princess Victoria of Kent were of good sale in the streets, and her Royal Highness was certainly represented as a young lady of undue plumpness, and had hardly justice done to her portraiture. The Duchess of Kent, also, I was informed, "sold fairish in the streets." In a little time, the picture in a frame of the Princess Victoria of Kent, with merely an alteration in the title, became available as Queen Victoria I., of Great and Ireland. Since that period, there have been the princes and princesses, her Majesty's offspring, who present a strong family resemblance.

The street pictures, so to speak, are not unfrequently of a religious character. Pictures of the Virgin and Child, of the Saviour seated at the Last Supper, of the Crucifixion, or of the different saints, generally coloured. The principal purchasers of these "religious pictures" are the poorer Irish. I remember seeing, in the course of an inquiry among streetperformers last summer, the entire wall of a poor street-dancer's room, except merely the space occupied by the fireplace, covered with small coloured pictures in frames, the whole of which, the proprietor told me, with some pride, he had picked up in the streets, according as he could spare a few pence. Among them were a crucifix (of bone), and a few medallions, of a religious character, in plaster or wax. This man was of Italian extraction; but I have seen the same thing in the rooms of the Roman Catholic Irish, though never to the same extent.

The general subjects now most in demand for street-sale are, "Lola Montes," "Louis Philippe and his Queen," "The Sailor's Return," "The Soldier's Return," and the "Parting" of the same individuals, Smugglers, in different situations, Poachers also; "Turpin's Ride to York," the divers feats attributed to Jack Sheppard (but less popular than "Turpin's Ride,") "Courtship," "Marriage" (the a couple caressing, and the other bickering), "Father Mathew" (in very black large boots), "Napoleon Bonaparte crossing the Alps," and his "Farewell to his Troops at Fontainebleau," "Scenes of Piracy." None of these subjects are modern; "Lola Montes" (a bold-faced woman, in a riding-

The prices of frame-pictures (as I sometimes heard them called) made expressly for streetsale, vary from to a pair. The a pair are about inches by , very rude, and on thin paper, and with frames made of lath-wood (stained), but put together very compactly. The cheaper sorts are of prints bought at the swag-shops, or of waste-dealers, sometimes roughly coloured, and sometimes plain. The greatest sale is of those charged from to the pair.

Some of the higher-priced pictures are painted purposely for the streets, but are always copies of some popular engraving, and their sale is not a of the others. These frame-pictures were, and are, generally got up by a family, the girls taking the management of the paper-work, the boys of the wood. The parents have, many of them, been paper-stainers. This division of labour is reason of the exceeding cheapness of this street branch of the fine arts. These working artists—or whatever they are to be called—also prepare and frame for street-sale the plates given away in the instance with a number of a newspaper or a periodical, and afterwards "to be had for next to nothing." The prevalence of such engravings has tended greatly to diminish the sale of the pictures prepared expressly for the streets.

years ago this trade was times greater than it is now. The principal sale still is, and always was, at the street-markets on Saturday evenings. They are sold piled on a small stall, or carried under the arm. To sell worth on a Saturday night is an extraordinary sale, and is a bad , and the frame-picturer must have "middling patter to set them off at all. 'Twopence a pair!' he'll say; 'only twopence a pair! Who'd be without an ornament to his dwelling?'"

There are now about persons engaged in this sale on a Saturday night, of whom the majority are the artists or preparers of the pictures. On a Monday evening there are about sellers; and not half that number on other evenings—but some "take a round in the suburbs."

If these people take weekly for framepictures the year through, is yearly expended in this way. I estimate the average number at daily. Their profits are about cent. per cent.; boys and working people buy the most. The trade is often promoted by a raffle at a public-house. Many mechanics, I was told, now frame their own pictures.