These two meticulously hand-carved pine planks, clamped together one above the other, were inked and pressed onto paper to make an image of a bustling, noisy mid-19th century fairground scene, packed with fascinating, closely-observed detail. The painted front of the menagerie booth, carved in the upper plank, advertises the wonders on show within, including images of a monkey, a lion and snakes, as well as a giraffe. This means the woodcuts could not have been produced before about 1830 when the craze for seeing giraffes in England took hold. The first giraffe ever seen in England arrived in 1827, sent to George IV by the Pasha of Egypt as a diplomatic gift.

The woodcuts depict many of the typical booth entertainments popular in fairgrounds of the day including theatre and circus, as well as menagerie. A 'barker' on the steps of the circus booth is touting for an audience, while musicians, equestrians and acrobats stand on the platform by the ticket booth. A band plays on another booth platform, where a figure dressed as Mr. Punch appears, while people are seen dancing in the Crown and Anchor dancing booth in the carving in the lower plank. A slack-wire performer sits on a wire above ground where sellers of food and drink ply their trade in the foreground, and people sit at tables near a food preparation table. Hundreds of people surround the booths and fairground rides, two of which are operated by the horses and riders on the outer rims of the rides, and the swing seat ride is operated by a man on a platform turning a wheel.

Considering the amount of time it would have taken for the craftsman to produce this woodcut, it must have been especially galling for him to realise, when it was finished, that he had omitted the second letter 't' from the word 'Theatre' above the theatre booth!

The original purpose of the print made by these two woodcuts is unknown. Its size means that it would have been unlikely to have been used as an illustration on a letterpress poster, or for a poster in its own right since fairgrounds of the time would not have had poster advertising. The planks were inked and printed in the 1980s to create a print for the collection, numbered S.542-2018.