Costermonger Costermonger Costermonger, coster, or costard is a street seller of fruit and vegetables, in London and other British towns. The term is derived from the words "costard" (a now extinct medieval variety of large, ribbed apple) and "monger" (seller), and later came to be used to describe hawkers in general. Some historians have pointed out that a hierarchy existed within the costermonger class and that while costermongers sold from a handcart or animal-drawn cart, mere hawkers carried their wares in a basket. Costermongers met a need for rapid food distribution from the wholesale markets (e.g., in London; Smithfield for meat,
Boy with a Basket of Fruit leaves showing various disorders: a prominent virescent grape leaf with fungal spots and another with a white insect egg mass resembling that of the oblique banded leaf roller ("Choristoneura rosaceana"), and peach leaves with various spots. The analysis indicates that Caravaggio is being realistic, in capturing only what was in the fruit basket; he idealizes neither their ripeness nor their arrangement—yet almost miraculously, we are still drawn in to look at it; for the viewer it is very much a beautiful and exquisite subject. Boy with a Basket of Fruit Boy with a Basket of Fruit, c.1593, is a painting