FOR EXPORT ONLY and STRIP-TEASE PERFORMANCE - the original printed appearance of these two cartoons featuring then-Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill in the 9 March 1955 edition of the magazine Punch, or The London Charivari
London: Punch, 1955. This original printed appearance of two Punch cartoons 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.
These two cartoons appeared thus on p.324 of the 9 March 1955 issue of Punch. The artist is Michael Cummings (1919-1997), who worked for Punch for more than 30 years. These two cartoons date from less than a month before Churchill resigned his second and final premiership, at age 80, on 5 April 1955.
In the first cartoon, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Defence Minister Macmillan carry an H Bomb marked "for export only." In a defense debate, Churchill said the Soviets would have enough H bombs to launch a major war in three or four years. By that time each side would have sufficient capacity to annihilate each other. Punch notes that Churchill "committed himself firmly to a 'deterrent policy' where, in a phrase that split the ears of the groundlings, safety would be the sturdy child of terror and survival the twin brother of annihilation." Meanwhile, he said, 'Never flinch, never weary, never despair.' The House heard him with silent respect."
The second cartoon is Punch taking issue with Emanuel Shinwell, who had complained that Churchill provided no new solution to the H bomb issue: "Mr. Shinwell's own contribution bore its usual hallmark; he treats defence questions as a tyro connoisseur treats wine, going through all the conventional motions of sniffing and peering and trying it on the tongue, using the jargon with easy familiarity, and only failing in one small but important respect, the distinction of good from bad. Even the description of the Prime Minister giving 'the best strip-tease act I have seen' was more notable for its imaginative quality than for its appropriateness."
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 #007201
Price: $80.00