Lot 110: A. S. HENNING

signed and dated 1843

oil on canvas

42 by 61 in.<br><br>106.7 by 155 cm.

PROPERTY FROM HSBC'S CORPORATE ART COLLECTION

Sale, Christie's, London, April 18, 1986, lot 108, illustrated (purchased by Edmond Safra for Republic National Bank)

In the early 1840's, in taverns and inns all over London, a new form of amusement was established in the form of Judge and Jury Societies, which re-enacted sensational murder and other trials of the day. The most famous of these was the Judge and Jury Society at the Cider Cellar Club in Maiden Lane, organized by 'Lord Chief Baron' Nicholson, a pawnbroker, who acted as judge, and who is shown in the center of the painting. Members of the public were admitted at one shilling a head and were entitled to take part in the trial, acting as either jurors or counsel. The most popular trial re-enactment was the famous murder trial of Sam Hall, chimney sweep.

The Societies were known to be active until the end of the 1860's, and the most famous were at Garrick Head Inns and the Coal Hole in the Strand, which still stands today. The Cider Cellar Club was in operation from 1829 until 1864 on Maiden Lane, and on its dissolution became the Adelphi Club. Thackery, also a regular visitor, used the Cider Club, renamed the Black Kitchen, in Pendennis. 'Baron' Nicholson was not only a pawn-broker but ran gambling rooms and dancing booths at fairs all over the country; he was bankrupt by 1836, died in 1861 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery.

A large painting by Henning is known to have been on display at a shop in Wellington Street as an advertisement for the Judge and Jury Societies, for which the artist was paid 200 pounds, and which may have been used by Nicholson to promote the next entertainment. (see ed. J. L. Bradley, Rogue's Progress--The Autobiography of 'Lord Chief Baron' Nicholson, 1965)