Bewick's ‘Little Whimsies’: Printmaking, Paper Money and Currency Radicalism in Early Nineteenth‐Century Britain.

This essay establishes the links between a little-known ‘experimental vignette’ by Thomas Bewick (1753–1828) and his work as an engraver of banknotes and anti-forgery devices. Taking these links as its cue, it brings the politics of paper money that emerged in England in the decades around 1800 to bear on a number of Bewick’s more famous wood-engravings – the ‘little whimsies’ that embellished his books of natural history. While seemingly far removed from the realm of banknote engraving, this essay suggests that these prints were informed by, and reflected upon, the problems raised by paper money and contemporary currency debates. Bewick’s printmaking can productively be compared to the critical work of early nineteenth-century currency radicals such as William Cobbett, who sought to expose the fictions of representation underpinning the British credit economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]