Mr Punch in London Town II
Today being the anniversary of the death of Henry Mayhew in 1887, it is appropriate to feature some more excellent early 20th Century cartoons from Punch, which Mayhew co-founded in 1841. As featured in Mr Punch In London Town from the New Punch Library. These artists were phenomenally talented, I love in particular their drawings of vehicles.
Only he came up with cartoon like that.
Excellent. I have a couple of volumes of Punch at home, one from 1869 and the other (I think) is 1873, and they’re excellent little tomes for passing 30 – 60 minutes.
The drawings are, as you say, incredible, and they, along with the sharp humour, are far funnier and crafted with more care than anything seen in today’s press.
After purchasing my Punch’s I did a little research and was quite impressed to see that (to the best of my recollection) they only closed down in 1992 (or, the 90’s at least)
I’m a collector of Victorian books anyway, and these are real gems.
I forget the exact dates surrounding the demise, but Punch died twice, firstly of natural causes, then Mohammed Fayed bought the rights and re-launched it in an ill-judged mission to take on Private Eye. It limped along for another five years or so until the life support machine was switched off for a second time. I went to see a live interview last night at the National Theatre. Mark Lawson with Ian Hislop to celebrate the latter’s 25 years as Editor. It was fun.