STEEL ENGRAVING – “THE LAST IN” from the original painting by William Mulready, engraved by J.T. Smyth, published in 1878.  This engraving is in very good condition.  The engraving measures 7 ¼” x 9”, and is matted to 11” x 14” for easy framing.

     From a less skillful hand than Mulready’s, the subject is one of that could not fail to arrest attention.  School-days - though not perhaps exactly as here set forth - are familiar reminiscences with all of us; and though even then, life was not without its tribulations, we can recur to them as pleasant times, and feel interested in whatever brings them back again to memory.  It is doubtful whether in after life, any moment brought with it such unalloyed happiness, as when on some bright summer afternoon the clock told the hour of deliverance from the bondage of the school-room.  But time has its’ revenge, a truth which becomes painfully manifest to “The Last In,” when the same hands which yesterday gave the signal for release, now pointed to the unwelcome hour when study must again begin.

    The scene depicted by Mr. Mulready; is the interior of a village school in England, in the days of compulsory laws and Government inspectors were unknown.  The master and his dame appear to be joint laborers in a common workshop, and the birchen rod, which lies before the former, is significant of the process by which knowledge is instilled into the pupils.  The mock ceremony with which the pedagogue greets “ The Last In” is ludicrously displayed while the embarrassed culprit knows too well the fate which is in store for him, and his companions, seen through the open door, watch with evident anxiety, to discover what reception the too may expect.  The spirit of the whole composition is most happily conceived, and the picture tells its own which the most elaborate description would fail to surpass.   William Mulready was a native of Ireland, and died in 1863, at the ripe age of seventy-seven.

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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