Wine, spirits, malt liquor, and crime.

"THE EVIL OF DRINKING"

Single sheet handbill (256 x 184mm)., two woodcut illustrations. Evenly browned, slightly creased at the edges, small tape repair on the blank verso. 

 

London: by J. V. Quick [and] J. Paul, 

Rare. OCLC records a single copy at the University of London.

 

A striking temperance handbill with two illustrations: the first showing a smartly dressed gentleman drinking a glass of wine, in the second image the same man is shown in a dishevelled suit (presumably under the influence of alcohol) kicking over his wife and a table in his home while a small child looks on from the bed.

 

Beneath the illustrations the text explicitly links drinking to crime and quotes a long passage, supposedly from "Judge Hale [Matthew Hale]", claiming that the increase over the past 20 years of "murders and manslauters...burgalries and robberies, and riots and tumults" are all linked to the "excessive Drinking of Tavern and Ale-house meetings".

 

Beneath the text is a table, "The SOBER Man's expenditure per Annum!" which curiously does not seem to call for total abstinence as "one glass of gin per day" is included in the budget.

 

The printer and publish John Vanderburg Quick produced numerous (often crime related) ballads and broadsides and was trading between 1823-1853. Three other temperance handbills are also advertised in the imprint including "Vices of the Gin Shop".

 

Stock Code: 246639