Listing: 1 x painting in frame, depicting a child or young person, selling football programmes. The details on the back of the painting state Liverpool Lavel Seller 1860. 

Condition: Used, vintage condition. The painting is hand signed on the front in paint. The painting has pencil, handwritten notes on the back of the painting board. There is some surface wear to the frame. There is some excess paint on the back of the paint board. The name on the front of the painting is hard to depict in some lights. Some surface wear. There are nails holding the painting into the frame and string on the back of the frame as a mount. From smoke-free and pet free premises.

Description: A oil painting on a wooden board, depicting a child or young person selling football programmes. The person is stood bare foot, wearing a top hat, a green coloured jacket, blue coloured scarf, and grey coloured trousers. The jacket and trousers appear too big, almost baggy and folded for the size of the person depicted. They are holding a stack of papers, with the description on the back of the painting helping to identify these as Liverpool football programmes. The background is green, as if they might be standing on the grass. 

The painting is oil paints on a wooden board. This has been secured to the wooden frame using metal nails. There are two metal rings on the back for helping to mount the frame and used string on these rings, previously used to mount the painting. The wooden frame is painted gold coloured, with some white coloured undercoat showing through in some places. The frame mount has no glass.

The front of the painting is hand signed in paint. There are two names. The first name is Adrian and the second name appears to be Lenham. 

The back of the painting board has handwritten pencil. The wording is Liverpool Lavel Seller 1860. 

Historical relevance of the painting: Liverpool football club was started in 1892. Everton football club was started in 1870. Neither football team was recorded as playing in 1860. Liverpool rugby club and Liverpool cricket club were existing in 1860. However, Liverpool St Helens Football Club was formed in 1857. While the club has Liverpool and football in the name, it was actually a rugby club. The word football was used to describe any sporting game that involved a ball and was played on foot, rather than on horseback.

There were other football teams already established in 1860, these were Sheffield, Hallam, Cray Wanderers, Cambridge University.

This painting could therefore be referring to established football teams that were playing games in the Liverpool area, unofficial Liverpool football teams playing football, or to the Liverpool St Helens Football Club. It could also be that the artist has depicted a programme seller at a Liverpool football match, and that the item has been dated wrong in the pencil markings to the scene it depicts. 

Using children to sell items, including football programmes, is historically correct for the time period stated on the back of the painting. Street urchins, became part of the match day experience. Working-class boys or orphans who lived on the street. They would work barefoot, in tattered or old clothing, in all weather conditions. This correlates with the painting depicting the young person working bare foot, with the clothing appearing oversized. 

Size in frame – Length: 19.8  cm  Width: 1.8  cm  Height: 23.4 cm

Weight: 214 grams, before postal packaging.

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