The March of Intellect. by [HEATH, William].

Etched and engraved print (230 × 350 mm), cut within plate mark, just touching border in places but not affecting imprint, image or caption. Original hand colouring. Lightly pasted at corners to an old drab paper album leaf, very light offset from another leaf, probably of pink paper, but still an excellent example.

One of Heath’s famous graphic satires on the theme of The March of Intellect, which expressed contemporary anxiety over technological progress and social change in England brought about by science, education, industrialisation and commercialisation. This one shows a London street corner at the edge of open country and the sea, with numerous figures, including a street-sweeper, horse-drawn carriage, two men playing chess, musicians and singers and street-sellers, with wealthy figures being sent down a mechanical lift beside giant shop window stuffed with milliner. A steam carriage full of redcoat soldiers is seen in background, along with passenger balloons and a flying warship (raining canon-fire at ships below) in the air beside bridge crossing the English Channel between Dover and Calais.