The Physical Marketplace

Abstract

This chapter explores the domestic marketplace for art and the printed word, the international markets these trades exploited, and the commercial links they established. The chapter considers how satirical prints fitted into this wider marketplace through comparisons of the relative cost, status, breadth, and cultural influence of the wares sold by these associated trades. The story presented is one of significant overlap and fluidity, a story that problematises the prominence of the “print shop” in our understanding of how satirical prints were sold. In short, not every “print shop” sold satirical prints and not every seller of satirical prints operated a “print shop.” Such nomenclature emerges as unsuitable for both the petty and prominent shopkeepers selling satirical prints in late-Georgian London.