Sold Here … The Spinster's Scrip thumbnail 1
Not on display

Sold Here … The Spinster's Scrip

Poster
c. May, 1894 (made)
Artist/Maker
Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent (designer)
Place of origin
Great Britain (printed)

'Sold Here … The Spinster’s Scrip As Compiled By Cecil Raynor'; Small poster advertising a William Heinemann publication showing two women,one leaning towards the other over the top of the framed block of text containing information about the publication, price etc. Signed.

Object details

Categories
Advertising
Prints
Posters
Gender and Sexuality
Object type
Poster
TitleSold Here … The Spinster's Scrip (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Line-block and letterpress
Paper
Pen and Indian Ink
Line Block Printing
Letterpress Printing
Brief description
Poster by Aubrey Beardsley advertising the William Heinemann publication 'The Spinster's Scrip As Compiled By Cecil Raynor'. Great Britain, c. May 1894.
Physical description
'Sold Here … The Spinster’s Scrip As Compiled By Cecil Raynor'; Small poster advertising a William Heinemann publication showing two women,one leaning towards the other over the top of the framed block of text containing information about the publication, price etc. Signed.
Dimensions
  • Height: 45cm
  • Width: 32.8cm
Dimensions taken from: Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'DAILY EXTRACTS / CONCERNING / MATRIMONY / In Pocket-Volume Form / Price 2/6 / THE / SPINSTER’S / SCRIP / AS COMPILED BY / CECIL RAYNOR. / London: William Heinemann.' (Letterpress text in frame, as part of poster design.)
  • 'SOLD / HERE.' (Text as part of poster design, above framed text.)
Credit line
Given by Frederick H. Evans
Subjects depicted
Women
Hat
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1
  • The following excerpts are from Zatlin, L.G. (2016) Aubrey Beardsley. A catalogue raisonné. 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 196: 'Beardsley frequently created a sexual atmosphere in his drawings featuring women who are in command. Such a situation occurs in this drawing. The subject may also be interpreted as a lesbian encounter; the scantily clad figure on the left leans over the balcony and seems to flirt or at least to exchange a mutually absorbed glance with the woman holding the leash... On the end of the leash may be a dog, but it is not depicted - a typical Beardsley joke. Rather than examining the ambiguity, male critics writing during the later half of the twentieth century focus on the women's clothing. Reade finds 'remarkable' the 'arresting and angular silhouette of the standing woman's garment and the half-clothed sphinx like female leaning on the panel' (1067. p. 349, n. 380).
Other number
3/F2 - V&A microfiche
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.21-1900

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O897037/sold-here--the-spinsters-poster-beardsley-aubrey-vincent/
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