Twintig printjes om één oortje, / En tien printjes om één duit, / Dat's te pynewaard zeid Doortje, / Wel ik koopze en knipze uit 1781 - 1800

This print was made by S. and W. Koene, who were active as book printers and paper sellers. It is an etched image, meaning that the artists would have coated a metal plate with wax, drawn into it with a sharp tool, and then bathed the plate in acid. This would bite away the exposed lines, leaving an incised image that could then be inked and printed. The resulting image has a folksy, immediate quality, partly due to the coarseness of the line. But this is no accident. The print is what is known as a ‘penny print’, a cheap form of visual media, and the deliberate crudity of the etching ensured it could be quickly and cheaply produced. Look closely, and you’ll see that this particular print is a series of vignettes, each with its own caption. These would have been cut apart and sold individually, perhaps to be pasted into scrapbooks or used for other kinds of domestic decoration. The Koenes were evidently catering to a popular market, supplying images for everyday consumption.