Summer's Labours [School piece or Penmanship sheet]
After Joseph Champion British
Publisher Robert Sayer British
Not on view
This print is decorated at the top and sides with agricultural scenes. Men and women celebrate May Day, mow grass, make hay, shear sheep and reap corn, with the scenes divided by calligraphic engraved flourishes.
The work comes from a genre known as writing sheets, writing blanks, penmanship exercises, letter sheets or school pieces, published in Britain ca. 1660 to 1860 and used by students to demonstrate their handwriting abilities, with this example never used.