‘Earliest tabloids’ to go under the hammer

SHEETS of paper containing details of crimes and people executed for them known as one of the earliest forms of tabloid journalism are set to be sold at auction.

One of the single-page newspapers up for auction. Picture: SWNS

Called ‘Execution Broadsides’ the documents covered gruesome and gory facts and rumours about hangings in Britain between the 18th and 19th Centuries.

They were produced to include sensational news about the crime and the people killed for them - normally selling for a penny near the gallows on the day.

The single sheets of printed news covered the crime committed, a woodcut illustration, a description of the convict’s final hours and his last dying confession.

Vendors would set up their carts and booths hours before execution time, selling food, drink, souvenirs, even pornographic material, to a frenzied crowd.

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Minstrels and jugglers entertained the masses and with the advent of cheap printing in the 16th and 17th centuries touts created the lurid “broadsheets”.

They detailed the supposed history and scandalous crimes of the victim - the ancestor to modern day tabloids.

The eleven clippings, which all vary in size, are being sold on November 12 at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester.

Chris Albury, an auctioneer and senior valuer, said they came from a private collection.

He said: “They are good fun. It’s tabloid journalism of the day. The wood cuts are quite crude. They are very graphic, dramatic items.

“It is nice to see such a big group of them together. A collection like this is routinely found in the British Library.

“Behind every copy there is a great story. Also, the more gruesome the crime, the more interested people are.”

Each of the execution broadsides covers one particular crime from the time, with text and drawings both giving the reader of the horrific crime.

Set to be sold next week they could fetch around £200 a piece, with some expected to reach up to £300.

One headline reads: “The Father’s Crime; or Fatal Curiosity. An affecting and true history of The Unnatural Murder of James Andrew Macauley, a Young Sailor, For his Wealth, and who proved, on the Morning after the Fatal Deed, to be the Murderer’s long-lost and only son!”

Another headline reads: “Life, trial, and Awful. Execution, of William Harley, for the Chipstead Burglary.”

For the time they were produced they were very sophisticated - involving columns, drawings and lavish boarders.

The earliest of the six lots dates back to 1787, going all the way up to 1846.

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