CROMWELL, WARTS AND ALL
On a bright Sunday afternoon in May 2019, the usual crowd gathered at Hayward’s Auction House in Dunedin for its latest sale of antiques and collectables. Among the items on offer was a large, gilt-framed, engraved print of Oliver Cromwell addressing Parliament. Closer study suggested the print was created in London around 1860, more than 20 years into the reign of Queen Victoria, and two centuries after Cromwell’s death. It must have once graced a grand sitting room or outsized hallway in some colonial home, perhaps even — who knows? — in Cromwell, Otago.
It went for the princely sum of $35. I was the only bidder. I acquired it mostly as a curiosity (I teach 19th-century literature at the University of Otago), and
