Ronald Searle: Teenybopper in Demi-Paradise

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

—Richard II

II.i

Ronald Searle's 1959 drawing of a pouting teenybopper with her guitar appeared in the July 28 number of Punch. This character illustrated the word Demi-paradise from John of Gaunt's "This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle" soliloquy. In 1961, the drawing was collected in Which Way Did He Go?

The presale estimate by Dreweatts 1759 Fine Sales was 1,000 to 1,500 GBP, with bidding starting at 950. 

Ronald Searle
Dreweatts 1759 Fine Sales listing accessed February 1, 2023

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/l-ronald-searle-british-1920-2011-teenie-bopper-183-c-683456e834?objectID=177268279&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=3e247c1cf26aad0232321f6cd9869d24

Ronald Searle
Dreweatts 1759 Fine Sales item description

The auction hammer price hit the high estimate.

Demi-paradise

https://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/2006/06/london.html

March 9, 2023 Update:  The new owner of this piece has gone public on Instagram here.

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Smilby: Breakfast Reading

Dick Buchanan has gone into his vast Cartoon Clip Files and found a vintage Valentine's Day cartoon from Punch by Smilby (1927-2009). Smilby is a pen name for British cartoonist Francis Wilford-Smith. Dick writes, "In America, his cartoons appeared in the New Yorker, the Saturday Evening Post, and Esquire. In 1960 he began a successful relationship with Playboy magazine, for which he produced more than 350 full-page color cartoons."

Smilby
Punch, February 12, 1958, page 232

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note:  This is Dick Buchanan's fifty-second contribution to Attempted Bloggery, so at last we are playing with a full deck. Now on to the jokers. Dick, of course, maintains the peerless Dick Buchanan Cartoon Clip Files which he gradually has been turning into a digital archive. He also contributes regularly to Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently a post entitled "From the Dick Buchanan Files: Even More Cops and Robbers Cartoons 1939 - 1970." Mike calls Dick "the great magazine cartoon connoisseur of our time." I second the motion.

Attempted Bloggery seeks works published and unpublished by Smilby that are new to the internet.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Valentine's Day

Smilby

Punch

Dick Buchanan

Attempted Bloggery's Well-Read Index

03167

Ronald Searle: The Fourth Republic at the Guillotine

In the May 21, 1958 issue of Punch, Ronald Searle revisits the imagery of the French Revolution in the wake of the Algiers putsch. The coup attempt of May 13 had led to the widespread concern that France lacked the resolve to put down the Algerian Revolution. Many felt a pullout from Algeria would signal a loss of French honor, another debacle comparable to that of Indochina in 1954. Hence the French Fourth Republic is depicted by Searle decapitating herself at the guillotine. It's a remarkably somber image for a Punch cartoon

Ronald Searle, Punch, May 21, 1958

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1958-POLITICAL-CARTOON-FRENCH-GIRL-on-GUILLOTINE-ALGIERS-COUP-Ronald-SEARLE-/322549306636?ul_noapp=true&autorefresh=true&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

May 17, 2018 Update:  This drawing appears on page 126 of Russell Davies's biography Ronald Searle (London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990) along with some additional information about it.

May 26, 2021 Update:  This drawing was reprinted in L'Express of May 29, 1958.


Note:  All this is my unusual way of wishing everyone a Happy Bastille Day. In that spirit, Ronald Searle's grotesquely brilliant illustrations celebrating the bicentennial of the French Revolution may be seen on the Ronald Searle Tribute blog here.

At this writing, the page from Punch is available on eBay for $9.99 plus $6.01 shipping.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ronald Searle

Bastille Day

Punch

Attempted Bloggery's Revolutionary Index

02244

Claude Smith: Coming Home to the Right Wife

The original artwork for a seven-panel cartoon by Claude Smith was offered for sale on eBay in 2013. At the end of the workday, a business man makes his way home to Apartment 4E where he notices that something is wrong. Stealthily he is able to correct his error before anyone notices, but is he better off?

The seller notes that a pencil inscription on a xerox copy of the cartoon suggests that it was published in the 1 January 1964 number of Punch. Then the seller goes on to make the farfetched conjecture that "...it may have appeared in the New Yorker as well as Punch." Now wouldn't that be something?

Meanwhile that xerox copy looks like a mock-up for printing, but the panels are all out of order. Why should that be? All the photographs have reflected glare as the cartoon was photographed framed under glass, but after shipping the buyer would face the added expense of having to reframe the seven panels.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-SIGNED-PUNCH-NEW-YORKER-PEN-INK-CARTOON-DRAWINGS-1964-BY-CLAUDE-SMITH-/301002139389?pt=UK_art_drawings_GL&hash=item46152026fd&nma=true&si=UB68sj2DvLx%252F9kdb54zXrlCgzYs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Note:  This blog has further postings on Claude Smith and on Punch cartoons

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Rowland Emett's Solar Power

Rowland Emett's fuel-economy train from 1949 is an open-air affair that apparently relies on the skillful use of mirrors for solar-powered steam propulsion and the concurrent use of umbrellas to protect engineers and passengers from the blazing English sun. It scarcely resembles any train in existence, but nothing is too farfetched for Mr. Emett's imagination. Annals of a Branch Line was a series that ran in Punch. The original artwork is in "The Illustrators 2014" show at the Chris Beetles Gallery.

Rowland Emett, Annals of a Branch Line II--Example of Fuel-Economy System in Operation
Punch, June 8, 1949, page 623

Chris Beetles Gallery:  "The Illustrators 2014"

http://www.chrisbeetles.com/gallery/cartoons/annals-branch-line-no-11-example-fuel-economy-system-operation.html

Number XI from the same series:

Rowland Emett, Annals of a Branch Line XI--The evening train arrives at Smugglers' Reach
Punch, June 15, 1949, page 651

Note:  You can find a bit more herein about Punch cartoons.

01342

Musical Punch

La Folie Musicale is a satirical drawing published in Punch in 1874. The theme is musical but the politics, at least at this resolution, is obscure.

La Folie Musicale
Punch, Vol. LXVI, September 19, 1874

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Punch-Cartoon-1874-034-LA-FOLIE-MUSICALE-034-/170594512303?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=UB68sj2DvLx%252F9kdb54zXrlCgzYs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc 

Mr. Punch is depicted as an English knight on the title page of this 1874 volume:

Punch, Vol. LXVI, Ye Champion of England, 1874

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Punch-Cartoon-1874-034-LA-FOLIE-MUSICALE-034-/170594512303?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=UB68sj2DvLx%252F9kdb54zXrlCgzYs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Note:  My other posts about Punch cartoons contain much more recent material.

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Chon Day: How to Train Your Parrot

Cartoonist Chon Day is best remembered for his work for the American magazine market, particularly the New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post. It is noteworthy that a work of original cartoon art recently sold on eBay that was published in the British humor magazine Punch. The paper has some condition issues, but the gag is still amusing. Decades ago someone, perhaps even the artist, thoughtfully added the city London in parentheses to distinguish the famous magazine from any other Punch publications that might be out there. Those of us who would like to know the date of publication rather than the city of publication can only shake our collective heads.

Chon Day, "Hi, Gorgeous...Hi, Gorgeous...Hi, Gorgeous...Hi, Gorgeous[....]"
Punch

Chon Day, "Hi, Gorgeous...Hi, Gorgeous...Hi, Gorgeous...Hi, Gorgeous[....]"
Punch

Chon Day detail

Chon Day's signature

The caption

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-CHON-DAY-pen-And-Ink-Cartoon-Sketch-PUNCH-Signed-/121159217851?ssPageName=VIP%3Awatchlink%3Atop%3Aen&fromMakeTrack=true&nma=true&si=UB68sj2DvLx%252F9kdb54zXrlCgzYs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Buy-It-Now Price

Chon Day, "Hi, Gorgeous...Hi, Gorgeous...Hi, Gorgeous...Hi, Gorgeous[....]"
Punch

Note:  More of my blog posts about the art of Chon Day may be seen here.

A portion of Chon Day's New Yorker work is in the Condé Nast Store here.

New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff believes Chon Day created the perfect cartoon. Read about it here.

Enjoy a septet of classic Chon Day cartoons from the Saturday Evening Post here.

See a Chon Day cartoon on The Pictorial Arts blog accompanied by my insightful comment here.

A couple of my blog posts about Punch cartoons in general may be seen here.

Don't forget to pipe up if you know the issue of Punch in which this was published!

Now bye, Gorgeous!

0968

Remembering Ed Fisher

Ed Fisher (1926-2013) was one of twenty-five cartoonists included in The Punch Line (1969), a collection of Punch cartoons edited by William Cole for the American market. A memorial service for Fisher will be held by the Society of Illustrators, 128 E. 63rd St., New York, NY today, May 21, at 5 p.m.

                                                                                    "Dad, can I join the Jehovah's Witnesses?"
"We're crashing!"      

Birds                                                                   
                     "Maid Marian!  That's a hot one!"

"...Yes, I'm fine...."                                        
                           Orbiting Earthmen are Real!

"Are you kidding?"

"All right, prude—you name them!"

0733

Punch Cartoonists in Space

In 1955, A Century of Punch Cartoons was published. It seems the venerable British humor magazine was publishing color cartoons about space exploration in the 1950's, well before Sputnik. No one knew precisely what space exploration would look like back then, so cartoonists were free to imagine it.

An eBay seller is selling a single page from the book with two color cartoons. They are by George Sprod and Smilby.

George Sprod recognized that space travel would continue to face daunting technical problems. Fortunately, the English seem especially well-equipped to deal with those.

George Sprod, "Ah well, thank goodness we still have our sense of humour." Punch, 1952.

Is it my imagination, or did Smilby's spaceship land upside-down?

Smilby, "You know, this is going to knock the bottom right out of the science-fiction market." Punch, 1954.

Williams, R. E., Ed. A Century of Punch Cartoons. New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1955.

Page from A Century of Punch Cartoons, eBay Item Listing

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181099714999&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

Page from A Century of Punch Cartoons, eBay Item Description

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181099714999&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

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