Description

An evocative graphite sketch, likely drawn directly from life, depicting a street or workshop scene: a workman crouches over his tools and a wheel-like apparatus while two onlookers — one in a peaked cap, one a bearded gentleman in a bowler hat and overcoat — look on, with a small dog watching from the side. The costume detail (bowler hat, sack coat, cravat) places the drawing in the 1870s–1890s.

The sheet is unsigned, and the specific trade or craft being depicted isn’t identified — this is sold as an anonymous period genre study, not an attributed work. The paper shows general age-toning and light scattered foxing, with a torn or deckled lower edge consistent with a sketchbook page. It’s presented in a later carved wood frame, not believed original to the drawing.

Medium: graphite on paper
Dimensions: 13.5″W x 11.5″H Art: 9.25″ x 7.25″
Date: circa 1870s–1890s
Condition: paper toned with scattered foxing; deckled/torn lower edge; sound and stable; framing is later