Keith Bowen: The Baker

Artist: Keith Bowen
1950 -
Nationality: Welsh
Artwork Year: 1989
Image Size: 20.75 by 18 inches
Overall Size: 28.5 by 20 inches
Medium: Charcoal on Water Color Paper

In ancient Britain, bread was already the "staff of life." But it wasn't until medieval towns and cities began to develop, that bread as a commercial bakery product grew in importance. In earliest medieval days, the lord and lady dined on bread of finely milled grain baked by their retainers. The serfs ate very coarse bread prepared in their own hovels, substituting porridge and gruel when they didn't have time to bake. In the frequent times of famine, the serfs created even rougher bread from acorns or inner bark of pine. Later as towns developed, specialized commercial bakers started to become important, and they soon organized themselves into powerful feudal trade "guilds," or early unions. Due mostly to miller monopolies and high taxes, the cost of bread was high and a frequent cause of dissatisfaction among the poor. Britain's Industrial Revolution led to numerous improvements in bread making, with swift mechanized dough mixing and powerful steam-driven mills appearing in the last part of the 18th century. Unfortunately, the cost of bread still remained high for most of the new laboring class. It is only in recent times that bread in Britain, as in the rest of the western world , has become a staple easily available to almost everyone, with racks of affordable, oven-fresh products crowding the bakers' shelves.

This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood® First Day Cover for the Great Britain 35p Food and Farming Year 1989 stamp issued March 7, 1989.

Artwork Copyright © 1989 Unicover Corporation. All Rights Reserved under United States and international copyright laws. You may not reproduce, distribute, transmit, or otherwise exploit the Artwork in any way. Images of the Artwork may be watermarked and/or digitally watermarked. Any sale of the physical original does not include or convey the Copyright or any right comprised in the copyright.

Our Stock Number (SKU): XB11934

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