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Stories

  • Article

Selling sex and sacrificing safety

Sex workers who report crimes against them can face a “what do you expect?” attitude. But one organisation is working to protect vulnerable people in the sex industry.

  • Article

The bishop’s profitable sex workers

How did the Church rake in revenue from 14th-century sex regulations? Kate Lister explores a bishop’s lucrative rulebook.

  • Article

How the magician’s assistant creates the illusion

Without breaking the spell, performer Naomi Paxton reveals the subtle ways the magician’s assistant helps the audience to keep believing.

  • Book extract

The psychology of Ouija

Explore the science behind table tilting and Ouija boards, and discover how the unscrupulous still make money from exploiting the ‘ideomotor’ effect.

All stories (8)

Images

  • A salesman selling booklets on self-surgery from a knapsack in the street. Coloured lithograph by C. Philipon, 1829.
  • An itinerant medicine vendor and his assistants being pelted off stage with stones from an angry audience. Engraving by C.F. Stoelzel, 1798, after J. Schenau.
  • An itinerant medicine vendor reciting from a piece of paper trying and sell his wares to a small audience. Facsimile reproduction of an etching by J. Both after A. Both.
  • A travelling medicine vendor. Etching by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1635.
  • A young man buying a potion (to induce falling in love?) from a street medicine vendor from Molière's play L'amour médecin. Engraving after J.B. Molière.
  • A travelling medicine vendor. Etching by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1635.
  • Doctor Humbug, an itinerant medicine vendor selling his wares from a stage with the aid of an assistant. Coloured etching, 1799.
  • A travelling medicine vendor. Etching by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1635.
  • A well groomed itinerant medicine vendor selling his wares from a smart carriage. Steel engraving by K. Schüler (?) after F. Piloty.
  • An itinerant medicine vendor selling his wares on stage to an audience while his assistant draws a tooth from a man. Etching by Diebiey, 1767.
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Catalogue

All works (210)