Mrs Sarah Porter Queen of the Touters at Tunbridge Wells.
Vander Smissen Pinxit. [engraved by William Pether.]
[n.d., c.1750.]
Scarce mezzotint. Sheet 335 x 255mm. Trimmed to plate, corners nicked.
An oval portrait of an old woman, ledger with 'Ladies' Subscriptions', quill and ink. When Richard ‘Beau’ Nash became Master of Ceremonies at Tunbridge Wells Assembly Rooms in 1735, he employed Sarah Porter to assist in touting or enlisting subscribers. She would greet visitors at the door of the ballroom is if she knew them, enquiring after a relative, before asking them to pay a subscription: if they refused, she would shadow them around the room, ledger and quill in hand, until they gave in and paid up. However rude people became Sarah never responded in kind. She continued in the roll until 1762.
CS 27.
[Ref: 58073] £180.00
[n.d., c.1750.]
Scarce mezzotint. Sheet 335 x 255mm. Trimmed to plate, corners nicked.
An oval portrait of an old woman, ledger with 'Ladies' Subscriptions', quill and ink. When Richard ‘Beau’ Nash became Master of Ceremonies at Tunbridge Wells Assembly Rooms in 1735, he employed Sarah Porter to assist in touting or enlisting subscribers. She would greet visitors at the door of the ballroom is if she knew them, enquiring after a relative, before asking them to pay a subscription: if they refused, she would shadow them around the room, ledger and quill in hand, until they gave in and paid up. However rude people became Sarah never responded in kind. She continued in the roll until 1762.
CS 27.
[Ref: 58073] £180.00