Illustration

Title: The Street Rhubarb and Spice Seller

Date: 1861-1864

Accession number: 2001.69/120

Place of collection: London

Material: paper

Measurements: H 216 mm; L 137 mm [CCity]

Henry Mayhew commissioned the photographer Richard Beard to make daguerreotype portraits of some of the 'street folk' working in London in the mid 19th century. This illustration was based on a photograph of a rhubarb and spice seller from Mogadore in Morocco. He had been a street seller in London for about forty years. He was 73 years old, and described himself as an Arab of Jewish faith, married to a Christian. He mentions that all the other rhubarb sellers he knows in London are also Jews and commends the good treatment received by the poor and elderly who have ended up in the Jews' Hospital in Mile End.