3-074-551 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches at the Crystal Palace Potato Show, 1883. '"Scrutineers"; A Potato Peeler; "Monster Potato" (Bird's Eye View), 12 inches from end to end; Lee's Defiance! Sir Garnet Wolesley, Lady Truscott, Lord Beaconsfield - Magnum Bonum, School Master; Sausage & Mashed Potatoes - Potato Mashers; The Rousham Park Hero - 50 1st Prizes; Favourite; Alderman de Keyser opens the Exhibition - mistaken identity; Fenns Seedlings; White Elephant Jumbo and Fir Potatoes - the Largest & Smallest in the Show; Versed in Potatoes; Cetewayo...A Grand International Exhibition was held..."for the encouragement of the best means of potato culture, and for the introduction and diffusion of improved varieties"...the prizes...ranged from ten shillings to £10, for the best dishes of potatoes...our Artist's Sketches...[inlude] one simple rustic who mistakes a Beadle for an Alderman, and the goodly but grotesquely shaped specimens, of enormous size, bearing such fanciful names as "White Elephant," "Hero," "Jumbo," and "Cetewayo." Their quality, in general, was remarkably fine; and the potato namesakes of distinguished persons - Lord Beaconsfield, Sir Garnet Wolseley, and others - did ample credit to their popular sponsors. The "Rousham Park Hero"...gained a first prize'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.