"The Entertaining History of Little Jack" [School piece or Penmanship sheet]
After John Bewick British
Publisher Laurie & Whittle British
Related author Thomas Day British
Not on view
This printed sheet is decorated at the top and sides with images that illustrate Thomas Day's "The Entertaining History of Little Jack." A vignette along the bottom shows a boy running in a landscape towards a goat. "The Story of Little Jack" was first published in 1788 with illustrations by Bewick and belongs to a genre that focused on stories centered on orphans or foundlings.
The work comes from a genre known as writing sheets, writing blanks, penmanship exercises, letter sheets or school pieces, published in Britain from the 1660s to 1860s and used by students to demonstrate their handwriting abilities. This example never used. While the publisher dated this print 1806, the paper is watermarked 1815, demonstrating that the printing plate was used over a long period.
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