Jane Ridsdale

The image of Jane is taken from the original 225mm x 305mm copperplate engraving/aquatint and scanned by Moira McTague. The print appears to have been made on a copper plate, of mixed technique: i.e. etching, aquatint, stipple, printed in colour, but with hand colouring too. The artist is John Raphael Smith, a well-known, respected painter and engraver 1751- 1812 (He also engraved ‘The Chalybeate Well at Harrogate’ in 1796.

It is interesting to note that Jane published and sold this print herself in Harrogate which she visited regularly. The Assembly Rooms (now the Mercer Gallery) opened in Harrogate in 1806 as a place where people would have enjoyed musical recitals, played cards, attended lectures, and read journals etc. It is possible that it was here Jane would have been able to sell her prints and ‘converse’ with the visiting public.

Jane Ridsdale was well known in the Harrogate area because of her unusual height and, in 1809, was reported to have appeared at Bartholomew Fair in London.

And also at Wrigley’s Rooms, Spring Gardens in London. Wigley’s like many museums of the era, was devoted to exhibitions of the curious and foreign.  One advertisement suggested a female ventriloquist and invisible girl were on display, as well as Mons. Du Bourg’s speaking picture. The gallery also showed artists in their 58 x 44 space and held auctions.

Lying behind the south-west frontage to Charing Cross, Spring Gardens is said to be named from a trick fountain during Elizabeth I’s era that would “spring” in to motion by passers-by stepping on hidden machinery, although there is some dispute. Others say it is named for a copse of tress on a spur of high ground rising from the Thames (London in The Nineteenth Century, 2011 ). There were pleasure gardens from the 17th century that evolved into indoor places of entertainment, including Wigley’s. 1825 was the closure date, according to research, for Wigley’s Rooms.