The Statute Fair, St James's Square, Newport, Isle of Wight

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
The Statute Fair, St James's Square, Newport, Isle of Wight

Inscribed lower left: Newport Statute Fair
Pen and grey ink and watercolour and pencil
12.9 by 25.3 cm., 5 by 10 in.

Provenance:
Desmond Coke (1879-1931);
check sotheby's sale, 23rd July 1931;
Anonymous sale, Christie's South Kensington, 3rd October 2001, lot 390, sold for £2,820;
With Agnew's, 2002

Exhibited:
London, Agnew's, 129th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, 13th February to 8th March 2002, no.12

This dates from Rowlandson's tour of the Isle of Wight with Henry Wigstead in 1791 - add note from `Regarding Rowlandson' p.135 onwards.

Statute Fairs, or Hiring Fairs, were an annual fixture in most important country towns until the early twentieth century. They were originally held on Martinmas Day, 11th November and men and women lined up in the hope of being employed.

A view of the same subject, incorrectly described as an auction, is in the Museum of Island History, Newport, Isle of Wight.