A Milleners Shop

Object Type
This is a glass print, sometimes called a glass picture. Its maker had to soak a black and white print in water, stick it face down onto the back of a sheet of glass, rub most of the paper away from the back leaving a thin transparent layer of paper and the ink making the image. The next stage was to colour the image from the back in oil colours. This was then fitted into a frame and the buyer could then hang it up on his or her wall straight away.

Trading
Much of the appeal of glass prints to18th-century shoppers was their relative cheapness compared to framed oil of watercolour paintings, which were entirely painted by hand. Glass prints were clearly made on a commercial basis, because certain prints on paper are regularly found turned into glass prints.

Time
English writers of artists' manuals describe how to make glass prints from the 1680s onwards. This print dates from the period of their greatest popularity - from about 1760 to 1790.

Frames & Condition
The person who made this glass print chose a frame made out of moulded pine, painted black, and gilded at the inner and outer edges. 18th-century glass prints in their original frames are quite rare. Because the print is stuck to the back of the glass, if the glass gets cracked or broken, it cannot be replaced.