This frame is one of a set of six in the V&A collection that were made to house a set of Hogarth's 'Harlot's Progress', published in 1732. This set of prints was the first example of Hogarth's 'modern moral subjects' produced as paintings and reproduced as prints. Hogarth was an innovative artist not just in his subject matter but also in his marketing processes. He appealed to a broad audience through prints and an important aspect of his 'modern moral subject' prints was the extent of their use as decorative ojects. In Hogarth's lifetime these prints would have been trimmed of thier margins and close framed.