THE 'AFTERMATH.' - an original printed appearance of this cartoon featuring Winston S. Churchill from the 27 March 1929 edition of the magazine Punch, or The London Charivari
London: Punch, 1929. This original printed appearance of a Punch cartoon featuring Winston S. Churchill comes from the personal collection of Gary L. Stiles, author of Churchill in Punch (Unicorn Publishing Group, 2022). His book is the first ever effort to definitively catalog, describe, and contextualize all of the many Punch cartoons featuring Churchill.
This cartoon titled "THE 'AFTERMATH'." appeared thus on p.339 of the 27 March 1929 issue of Punch. The artist is Leonard Raven-Hill. The image is captioned "Mr. Churchill. 'BEFORE DECIDING WHAT SORT OF HARVEST TO GO FOR, IT WOULD BE A GREAT CONVENIENCE FOR ME TO KNOW WHO'S GOING TO REAP IT.'" The title of the cartoon likely plays on the title of the fifth volume of Churchill's history of the First World War - The Aftermath - which had just been published on 7 March 1929.
In this cartoon Churchill, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, is portrayed as deciding what approaches are best to raise additional revenues. Obviously the seeds for "Taxpayer's Joy" are the scarcest and least likely to be productive. He also knows there will be an election soon and doesn't know even if he will be in office to reap the benefits (he would not). Finally, Snowden, his Labour nemesis, is closely watching Churchill's choices.
Punch or The London Charivari began featuring Churchill cartoons in 1900, when his political career was just beginning. That political career would last two thirds of a century, see him occupy Cabinet office during each of the first six decades of the twentieth century, carry him twice to the premiership and, further still, into the annals of history as a preeminent statesman. And throughout that time, Punch satirized Churchill in cartoons – more than 600 of them, the work of more than 50 different artists.
It was a near-perfect relationship between satirists and subject. That Churchill was distinctive in both persona and physical appearance helped make him easy to caricature. To his persona and appearance he added myriad additional satirical temptations, not just props, like his cigars, siren suits, V-sign, and hats, but also a variety of ancillary avocations and vocations, like polo, painting, brick-laying, and writing. All these were skewered as well.
Some Punch cartoons were laudatory, some critical, and many humorous, like the man himself. Nearly always, Churchill was distinctly recognizable, a larger-than-life character whose presence caricature served only to magnify. Item #007152
Price: $55.00