Mr Balls is probably the pawn-broker. The traditional sign for a pawn-shop is three golden balls. Pawning of clothes and other items was routine for the labouring poor.
1 note
1 note
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Volume 11 p258 1828 printed the following engraving
and reported that "The diorama view is one of extraordinary pictorial beauty. It is taken from the entry of the principal street, [of Unterseen] on arriving from Interlachen, and extends in the direction of the Jungfrau, which rises in huge embattled pride at the termination of the view"