Now that products and services are increasingly offered via the Internet, it is hard to imagine that until the beginning of the twentieth century marketing was mainly done by itinerant peddlers, even in Western Europe. "Peddlers" of all kinds trekked daily through towns and villages to loudly advertise their wares. Their appearance and sometimes picturesque clothing have traditionally also inspired Dutch draughtsmen and engravers to a more or less realistic depiction. Only in recent years have (art) historians conducted scanty research in this field, but they often limited themselves to sellers of printed matter, depicted on cent prints, leaving out the art print. Straatverkopers in beeld offers a complete survey of three centuries of street vending, insofar as drawn or depicted in print by Northern and Southern Dutch artists from the sixteenth century to 1850. A forgotten aspect of our cultural history now receives full attention for the first time. It is, as might be expected, not a purely national pictorial history. Apart from the Netherlands, such peddling performances occur in Italy, France, England and Germany. We can no longer hear the street noise that accompanied the performance of all those peddlers. To their hard living conditions and small profits we have to guess. But their appearance is clear to us with this richly illustrated book.