Richard Oastler, 12 Coffee Gallery, Fleet Prison Dec. 9 1840
Madeley lith. 5 Wellington St. Strand
Lithograph, rare, sheet 230 x 150mm (9 x 6"). Trimmed. Bit messy.
Richard Oastler (1789 - 1861), factory reformer. Oastler was famously 'awakened' in 1830 to the cruelties routinely practiced in English textile mills, and throughout the 1830s was an infuential advocate of factory reform, his oratorical skills earned him the sobriquet 'The factory king'. His paternalistic view of society meant that Oastler, the quintessential Tory radical, abhorred the idea of strikes, trade unions and universal suffrage. Eventually, in 1838, Thomas Thornhill, the squire of Fixby who employed Oastler as a steward on his estate, turned against Oastler, dismissing him and initiating legal proceedings against him. Unable to repay debts to Thornhill which he had accumulated, Oastler was committed to the Fleet prison for three and a half years (the date on this print is the date his sentence began). As this portrait suggests, Oastler kept busy in prison editing a weekly newspaper, and continued to edit a magazine after his release, but these had little influence. It was not as a writer but as a presence and speaker that Oastler was most influential.
[Ref: 41659] £140.00
Lithograph, rare, sheet 230 x 150mm (9 x 6"). Trimmed. Bit messy.
Richard Oastler (1789 - 1861), factory reformer. Oastler was famously 'awakened' in 1830 to the cruelties routinely practiced in English textile mills, and throughout the 1830s was an infuential advocate of factory reform, his oratorical skills earned him the sobriquet 'The factory king'. His paternalistic view of society meant that Oastler, the quintessential Tory radical, abhorred the idea of strikes, trade unions and universal suffrage. Eventually, in 1838, Thomas Thornhill, the squire of Fixby who employed Oastler as a steward on his estate, turned against Oastler, dismissing him and initiating legal proceedings against him. Unable to repay debts to Thornhill which he had accumulated, Oastler was committed to the Fleet prison for three and a half years (the date on this print is the date his sentence began). As this portrait suggests, Oastler kept busy in prison editing a weekly newspaper, and continued to edit a magazine after his release, but these had little influence. It was not as a writer but as a presence and speaker that Oastler was most influential.
[Ref: 41659] £140.00