These delightful pictures, often small in scale, represent the Edwardian art of collecting original artworks as mementoes of friendship and exchange. Their subjects and themes reflect much about the Edwardian era—the period during the reign of King Edward VII (1901–10).

These years, sandwiched between two more momentous historical eras (the Victorian era and World War One), are often considered hard to define, and are characterised by a number of contradictions and tensions. It was a time of increasing social and political unrest, of the questioning of society, growing female emancipation and shaking off the shackles of the Victorian era. There were tensions between new mass society and the old guard aristocracy; between technological advances such as electrification, the motor car and cinema, and a nostalgia for rural traditions; and between fine art and the developing decorative arts, principally Art Nouveau. As a result, the arts of the period combine reassuring references to the past with elements of the strikingly new and modern.

Popular subjects include Edwardian ladies in opulent ostrich feathers or flowing Grecian dress, and monocled society gentlemen; ocean liners; still lifes with Art Nouveau jugs; literary subjects including Shakespeare and Longfellow; and humorous cartoons, featuring feminist elements or satirising high society.