Broadside / Ephemera / Illustration / Image

Broadside on 'Christmas Gambols'

Broadside: Christmas Gambols [page: single sheet]

Description

This broadside offers a clue as to the nature of domestic Christmas celebrations in this period. Christmas Gambols, and Twelfth Night’s Amusements is a mix of seasonal songs, illustrations of characters and games (such as blind man’s buff), and historical nuggets. It was evidently aimed at the middle classes, especially with the relatively expensive price of two pence. Broadsides were large-format single-sheet publications, hurriedly and cheaply printed, and sold on the streets usually for a penny or halfpenny.

Christmas Gambols was produced in 1823 by one of the most successful mass-market publishers, James Catnach (1792–1841) of Seven Dials, London, who became wealthy using only his father’s old wooden presses in the family home.

Full title:: Christmas Gambols, and Twelfth Night's Amusements
Published:: 1823, London
Format:: Broadside / Ephemera / Illustration / Image
Creator:: Unknown
Usage terms: Public Domain
Held by: British Library
Shelfmark:: 1875.d.7.(17.)

This item is featured in:

Discovering Literature: Romantics & Victorians

Queen Victoria's Christmas tree painting cropped

Victorian Christmas

Article by:: Judith Flanders
Themes:: The middle classes, Popular culture

Judith Flanders describes how many of our own Christmas traditions – from trees and crackers to cards and carols – have their origins in 19th-century industrial and commercial interests.

Street literature

Article by:: Ruth Richardson
Themes:: Reading and print culture, Popular culture

From public notes and broadsides to catchpennies and printed songs, Dr Ruth Richardson examines the variety of street literature which informed and entertained the public before newspapers were readily available.