The Lamplighter

A lamplighter walks a street near dusk, carrying a ladder over his shoulder and and a metal torching device, an oil cannister whose long spout stuffed with a wick has been lit. A small plume of smoke rises from the spout. A hat with buckle tops shoulder length curly hair which with his stripped coat and pom-pom garter knots makes him look rather a dandy. Around his waist he wears an apron with other implements of his trade, scissors and wicking material. The left background is a large city house or building with a church whose steeple rises behind and another building with steeple forms the more distant background to the right center. On the far right is a brick building wall from which a iron fence runs to a lamp post. The image, from a watercolour by Robert Dighton, illustrates the poem, "Jolly Lamplighter," by Charles Dibdin. Originally published by Carington Bowles in 1790.