Mid-19Thc Engraving; Meeting Of The Council Of The Anti-Corn Law League C.1847

The very large line-engraving by Samuel Bellin (1799-1893) after the painting by John Roger Herbert (1810-1890), showing the Meeting of the Council of the Anti-Corn Law League, presented in its contemporary and original highly decorative distressed gilt frame with cornucopia and globe mouldings, the crest detailed 'Free Trade with the World', with plaques inscribed 'The Council of the Anti Corn Law League' and 'Asia', 'Africa', 'Europe' and 'America' to each corner, the whole being glazed and surviving from the very early Victorian period.

The engraving is in very decorative and unrestored condition and is totally original. There is soiling and foxing but we love their overall feel. They have not been meddled with in any way shape or form. The frame and glazing are both original to the engraving and are beautifully decayed but still in good structural order with the glass having slipped slightly from the top edge and the plaque for America lacking. Please refer to the photographs for a full visual reference.

The Anti–Corn Law League was a successful political movement in Great Britain aimed at the abolition of the unpopular Corn Laws, which protected landowners’ interests by levying taxes on imported wheat, thus raising the price of bread at a time when factory-owners were trying to cut wages. The League was a middle-class nationwide organisation that held many well-attended rallies on the premise that a crusade was needed to convince parliament to repeal the corn laws. Its long-term goals included the removal of feudal privileges, which it denounced as impeding progress, lowering economic well-being, and restricting freedom. The first Anti–Corn Law Association was set up in London in 1836; but it was not until 1838 that the nationwide League, combining all such local associations, was founded, with Richard Cobden and John Bright among its leaders. Cobden was the chief strategist; Bright was its great orator.

The engraving shows Cobden at the centre, addressing a large group of members of the Anti-Corn Law League seated and standing around him, holding a paper in his left hand and looking to the left, in a room with a bay window to the left, two other windows at the rear and two framed portraits on the back wall with a table at the centre and a copy of 'Punch' magazine on the floor to the foreground right.

Scale, originality, texture, grandeur; faded country house at its peak; glorious.