"The Harvesters," illustration to "The Leather Bottèl"

Abbey moved to England in 1878 to make illustrations for Harper's and settled there permanently in 1883. This image responds to an old ballad that celebrates drinking and the superiority of leather flasks. The artist shows haymakers at noon refreshing themselves with ale. Related stanzas read:

A leather bottèl we know is good,
Far better than glasses or cans of wood,
For when a man's at work in the field,
Your glasses and pots no comfort will yield;
But a good leather bottèl standing by
Will raise his spirits whenever he's dry.

At noon, the haymakers sit them down,
To drink from their bottèls of ale nut-brown;
In summer, too, when the weather is warm,
A good bottèl full will do them no harm.
Then the lads and lasses begin to tottle,
But what would they do without this bottèl?

Reproduced as a wood engraving, the image appeared in Harper's "New Montly Magazine," vol. 77 (August 1888), p. 326, and in "Old Songs, with drawings by E. A. Abbey and Alfred Parsons," New York, 1889, p. 45 (see MMA 21.36.112).