Joseph Strutt. Plate XXXV - 'Hot Cockles' from Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. 1801. Image 22x11cm

Joseph Strutt (1749-1802). English engraver, artist, antiquary, and writer. Strutt was educated at King Edward VI Grammar school, Chelmsford (where there is a house named after him), and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to the engraver William Wynne Ryland. In 1770, he became a student at the Royal Academy in London. His most productive and valuable period was from 1795, when Strutt returned to London from life in Hertfordshire, and brought out his 'Dresses and Habits' of the English People (2 vols. 1796–1799), followed by 'Sports and Pastimes' of the People of England (1801).