Antiquarian Books, Stamps, Artefacts & Militaria Wednesday, 2 October 2019 - 10:00 AM start
The Working Men's Educational Union
Lot Details
London handcoloured lithograph on calico stamped with Union's name and address, and serial number M10 (lower right) 118 x 88cm The Working Men’s Educational Union was a philanthropic organisation founded in London in 1852. One of its aims was to provide free education for the working classes through public lectures at numerous venues across the city. During the 1850s it published at least 400 different large format lithographic wall hangings, which it called ‘Diagrams’, that were designed to illustrate lectures on a wide variety of subjects. They were produced on calico to avoid paper duty and were available for purchase at the Union’s premises in Skinner Street, Clerkenwell and King William Street, near London Bridge. In 1854 the Union advertised a series of these Diagrams titled Missionary Scenes, ‘Being twenty coloured Diagrams upon Missionary Trials, Perils, and Insults, Heathen Superstitions, Cruelties, etc. ; suited for Missionary Lectures. It is likely that the present Diagram, of which we can trace no other extant example, formed part of this Missionary series. Indeed, it seems reasonable to posit that the ‘M’ preceding the sequence number ’10’ at lower right stands for ‘Missionary’. The Alexander Turnbull Library holds fifteen of these works from the same series depicting scenes from New Zealand, Australia, Torres Strait, Pacific Islands and South Africa.
