Oldal 400 [400]
The Image of the Jewish Street Seller in Nineteenth Century London
London to show how the stereotypes applying to the Jewish population were pre¬
sented in nineteenth-century British prints.
Everyday-Life Cartoons
Illustrations showing day-to-day-life scenes played an important role in Victorian
Britain. Apart from being used to illustrate novels and books, they were popular
merchandise sold by street art sellers (Ibidem: 5—8). The scenes reflected the every¬
day experiences of the townspeople, which in nineteenth-century London, among
other things, meant more of a need of coexistence with immigrants than had exist¬
ed before. In the case of the Jewish population, the most common occupations were
street trade (usually in used items), tailoring, shoemaking, and carpentry (Booth
1970: 52-56). Jewish merchants or tailors and their non-Jewish customers were
often portrayed, and pictures showing them were used to introduce a stereotype of
dishonest Jewish merchants trading with unaware Englishmen. One of the cartoons
showing a scene of that kind and offering some idea on how the Jewish minority
was represented in the first half of the nineteenth century is “The Razor Seller” (ill.
172)."* It is a lithograph by J. Jenkins from 1826 (catalog number AR 1168).
The picture shows two figures—an Englishman dressed in a white coat and
a Jewish street trader, wearing dark overalls and a furry hat. The occupation of
the Jewish figure can be easily recognized based on the tray in front of him. This
was a common way of dealing with legal restrictions on street trade in nineteenth¬
century London—the law prohibited selling any wares from fixed stalls or tables,
which could block pathways or pavements. A person not owning a shop and will¬
ing to trade goods in the streets had to be moving all the time (Mayhew 1985: 15).
Therefore street merchants either carried their commodities in hand or used trays,
bags, or small carts to display their wares and be able to change locations.
The scene shows a quarrel between the two men. The buyer, who is clearly dis¬
satisfied with his purchase, tries to return a razor and complains about the quality of
the item. The seller smiles with an innocent look on his face, his hands spread wide
as if in a gesture of total misunderstanding of the problem. In the first half of the
nineteenth century Jews had a massive share of the street trade. Most of them spe¬
cialized in such wares as used clothes, books, and metal objects such as razors, um¬
brellas, knives, and pots. The quality of the items was poor and the prices were low.
A slightly different scene focusing on street trade is presented in the picture en¬
titled “Jew-venal” (ill. 181),° by W. Heath. The scene takes place outside a large,
4 hetp://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/search-our-collections-new?adlibid=78278offset=0 (accessed 04.
07. 2012).
' The dating of the cartoon is difficult, since the Jewish Museum Archive holds it under the very same
title in two collections. In the first case under the catalog number AR1154 it is described as a piece of art
from 1823 (http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/search-our-collections-new?adlibid=5451&offset=0
accessed 04. 07. 2012), and in the second case the catalog number is C 1986.7.12 and the date is 1835
397