Print of the Day: A Tinsel Print, 1850

Tinsel Print, 1850
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Tinsel prints are exactly that—transfer prints or cut-out engravings on fabric which had been embellished with tinsel. This was quite a popular novelty during the Victorian era. This tinsel print dates to 1850 and depicts Mr. E.F. Saville as “Union Jack,” a character representing the spirit of Britain. He’s shown standing in front of a scene of a castle. This hand-colored engraving has been cut out and attached to a backing of fabric to which tinsel, paper and satin have been applied additions. Originally, the bottom of the piece bore the names of the actor, the character and the publisher, but these have been trimmed away.

Mr. E.F.Saville came by his theatricality naturally—the offspring of a theatrical family. He was the son of Saville Faucit, a playwright, actor and author of “penny dreadfuls,” and was also the brother of the actress Helen Faucit. In the mid 1840s he created a sensation as the villainous Bill Sykes in the dramatization of Dickens’ Oliver Twist at the Old Vic Theatre. During the final scene, audiences gasped when “Sykes” killed Nancy, “smearing her with red ochre for blood and dragging her round the stage by the hair.”

But it was E.F.Saville’s role as a hero which made him the most popular. He was celebrated in the title role of Union Jack; or, The Crew of the Bright Blue Wave, written by William Rogers, 1842. The drama about British life at sea—though unrealistic—was well received.