Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Town Dwellers - What Can You Expect?

I don’t get the impression that the readers of Punch were very keen on opening up the countryside to town dwellers.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: The Importance of Golf

Golf figures prominently in the pages of Punch. An abiding concern among the leisured classes was what to do with all this leisure. Sport of many kinds was usually the answer and was taken very seriously as a result.

Here we see a keen lady golfer who has just made a serious mistake. I rather think that the point is that she reckons that she is the expert and therefore can’t bear the idea of being corrected by the man.

The artist has convincingly caught the postures of the two in a brief moment in time.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Latin Spoken by the Working Classes!

How quaint! Ordinary people shouting out the correct Latin names of the plants that they are selling from their barrow! That, my friends, is the joke! They ought to be dropping their aitches…

My Google research tells me that the plants in question are clove pink, English wallflower and tussock bellflower.

So they hadn’t made up imaginary Latin names.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Not the Behaviour of a Real Gentleman

This precious young man isn’t being appreciated by the waiter or by the other diners. He can’t be bothered to read the wine list himself and feels compelled to use fancy language.

Bad Show!

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: The Colonising Mentality

Clearly this is more than a bit of an exaggeration. (How would they have got the cow into her precarious pen?)

But the underlying view really was that the world was one’s oyster if you were British. We note the pet monkey on the roof of the shack also waving off the visitor. There is also the loyal bearer bringing up supplies to the ‘bwana’ and his lady. The hosts clearly aren’t that wealthy but they still enjoy imperial privilege.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: How Not to Make Friends With and Influence the ‘Natives’

This cartoon is just making fun of the British Empire.

Everything surely is a caricature particularly the ‘natives’. The ‘empire builders’ look pretty silly having disembarked from their ship flying the Union Jack especially as they haven’t got any soldiers with them. The reception committee look suitably ‘sambo’ like. (I assume that we are looking at the local queen and her entourage.) The most absurd part is the ‘present’ that Jenkinson has prematurely revealed.

Re: The Pages of Punch

Well, I've finally caught up! I should say that it has been an excellent thread and long may it continue. Hopefully, you have access to even more of these wonderful cartoons.

The first thing I thought when I saw this last one was 'how times have changed'! I can't imagine such an image being published these days in the 'PC Age', even though I'm sure no offence to the people of the 'reception committee' was intended.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: The Price of Failure

The skipper in the Wavy Navy (that is, Merchant Navy, not Royal Navy) has greatly under estimated the effect that this accident will have on his career. Five pounds doesn’t begin to cover the losses that he is going to sustain.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: A Charming Picture

I rather think that bell making remains the same however large or small the bell is. Is it possible to pre-determine the note that is emitted? I wouldn’t know.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1938: Parisian Fantasy

Without noticing it the two Frenchmen about Town find themselves on the inside looking out instead of on the outside looking in.