A village ale-house, in which the landlord is offering a watch as the prize in a raffle. Engraving by G. Greatbach after E. Bird.

London : G. Virtue, [1852]

1 print : engraving ; image 19 x 25.2 cm

The raffle for the watch. W. Bird R.A. painter. G. Greatbach engraver. From the picture in the Vernon Gallery.

The art journal, 1852, p. 240 ("The raffle for the watch. E. Bird, R.A., painter. G. Greatbach, engraver. Size of the picture, 1 ft. 11½ in., by 1 ft. 5 in. The name of the painter of this picture is but little known in our day, though it is not very many years since he occupied no mean position among the Royal Academicians. Bird, born in the year 1772, was a native of Wolverhampton, and at Birmingham served a term of apprenticeship to a tea-board maker, by whom he was employed to ornament these objects of manufacture. He subsequently removed to Bristol, and opened a drawing-school, occupying the hours not devoted to instruction in sketching and painting, and, after some little time, was persuaded by friends to send two or three pictures to the Bath Exhibition, which were readily bought at prices beyond his original demand. His reputation soon increased, and his works were coveted and acquired by some of the most distinguished collectors. The Marquis of Stafford became the possessor of his "Chevy Chace" at the price of three hundred guineas, and of his "Death of Eli," for five hundred guineas, while the Council of the British Institution awarded him a sum of three hundred guineas for the latter picture. The example we here introduce of his composition belongs to that class in which he most excelled ; it is one that Wilkie himself might have imagined. We have, indeed, heard that when the latter saw this picture, he remarked how proud he should have felt had he painted it ; certainly the Scottish artist never produced a more characteristic group than that engaged in the kitchen of the village ale-house, in disposing of the watch which the landlord displays to the assembled company, each one of whom is a natural study. The picture is painted with extraordinary depth and finish, and might not unworthily be placed by the side of a Teniers or an Ostade.")

Wellcome Collection 33361i

After: a painting presented by Robert Vernon to the National Gallery in 1847 and subsequently in the Tate Gallery