1861 (year of production) Wood engraving mounted on grey card
175 x 295 mm. Purchase: Puttick and Simpson Auctioneers, Leicester Square, London 1924
Doyle's 'Bird's-Eye Views of Society'- series consists of sixteen images which were published in Cornhill Magazine between April 1861 and October 1862. Doyle wrote humorous articles to accompany each image.
A room with a large crowd of children of different ages and adults. In the front, children are playing with a variety of toys. In the middle, juvenile couples are dancing and in front of the window of the rear wall a group are playing 'blind man's buff'. The pictures on rear wall show children dressed up as Elizabeth I to the left and Napoleon Bonaparte to the right. On the left-hand side, children and adults are standing together in small groups. On the right-hand side, boys are involved in a pillow fight behind a row of seated girls. Doyle's initials and 'dicky' bird are in the lower left corner, the Dalziel signature towards the lower right-hand corner. The paper is yellowed with age and the paper folds are visible.