STEEL ENGRAVING – “A FEAST OF CHERRIES” from the painting by Birket Foster, engraved by T. Brown, printed in 1883.  This engraving is in very good condition.  The engraving measures 7” x 10”, and is matted to 12” x 16” for easy framing.

We have always considered Birket foster and David Cox as representative artists of genuine English rural scenes, though there is a wide difference in their style and manner, and in the subjects of their representative pencils; for, while the latter made his figures subordinate to the landscape, the former, as a rule, gives the most importance to his figures, the landscape portion of his compositions being the setting in which his rustic groups are enshrined; and very beautiful setting it is – characterized by a thorough feeling for the picturesque in all the varies aspects of nature.  The popularity of Mr. Foster’s pictures, both in oils and watercolors cannot be a matter of surprise, for they always leave a most agreeable impression on the mind: he takes little, if any, notice of grown-up people, having but small sympathy with their rural occupations or amusements; but he delights in the young, and loves to represent them in their various sports and recreations – gathering primroses by the wood side, making coronals of wild flowers, romping in the hayfields, nutting, blackberry gathering, swinging on the branches of trees, building sand castles on the seashore, or launching tiny boats on tiny lakes left by the receding tide.  Out of such materials he constructs his winsome representations of juvenile life.

            In “A Feast of Cherries” we have a group of young girls about to engage in a more serious occupation than any of those just named: seated on the bank of a turf which skirts a garden path, they are about to dispose of a dish of cherries, probably gathered in an adjoining orchard.  The maidens are all intent on the work they have to do, and each appears to be making a choice of the most inviting cherries from the general stock; one of the girls, with a little excusable affectation of manner, holds out her selections for the notice of her companions.  The composition of the quartette is easy and natural, and, as we look at them beginning their “feast,” it is only natural to desire fro them that “good digestion may wait on appetite.”  In the flower border opposite the girls are some fine white lilies: did the artist introduce them as emblems of the purity of his young friends?

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Antique prints, engravings, and lithographs are printing processes, which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, and lithographs are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated, thus giving the buyer an idea of its age.

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