Joseph Nash (1808-1878) was a painter and lithographer who produced prints of important events and buildings. The prints were of high quality, and he coloured them by hand. He first became famous for this series of illustrations, entitled ‘The Mansions of England in the Olden Times’. The prints showed the interiors of historic houses. Nash later produced a popular series of pictures of the Great Exhibition, which was held at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851.

People in Britain felt an intense nostalgia for the pre-industrial past at this time. Nash pioneered a new way of representing historical interiors, which were peopled with figures doing appropriate things. This was an important factor in their appeal. Britain in the Tudor period (1485-1603) or the Middle Ages no doubt looked something like his pictures. But Nash inevitably portrayed a cleaned-up view.