THE RULER OF THE KING'S NAVEE. - an original printed appearance of this cartoon featuring Winston S. Churchill from the 4 October 1939 edition of the magazine Punch, or The London Charivari
London: Punch, 1939. 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 RULER OF THE KING'S NAVEE" appeared thus on p.379 of the 4 October 1939 issue of Punch. The artist is A. W. Lloyd. The carton is captioned "'When at anchor here I ride | My bosom swells with pride | And I snap my fingers at the Fuehrer's taunts!' H.M.S. Pinafore up-to-date." Churchill had spent nearly the entirety of the 1930s in the political wilderness, out of power, out of favor, and frequently at odds with both his own Conservative Party and prevailing public sentiment. Then came the terrible vindication of the outbreak of the Second World War. On 3 September 1939 - a month before this cartoon was published - Churchill was restored to the Cabinet, appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, reprising the role he had played in the First World War. Here the artist depicts Churchill as First Lord Sir Joseph Porter in "HMS Pinafore", the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.
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 #007161
Price: $65.00