Comedy, Satire and Propaganda WW1

This album contains postcards showing cartoons and images from the WW1 period and earlier (both comic/satirical and propaganda) by other artists/publishers, including Bamforth & Co., D G Buxton (1884-1951), E T W Dennis (1847-1923), Ernest Ibbetson (1877-1959), Reg Carter (1886-1949), Fred Spurgin (1882-1966) and others.

Bamforth & Company of Holmfirth, Yorkshire, England, was a prolific producer of specialty postcards between 1900 and 1920 (see Bamforth & Co).  One of their most popular lines of cards was the Song Cards of the First World War. Over 600 sets were mass produced using verses of popular songs and featuring live models.

D G Buxton (1884-1951) - Dudley Graham Buxton was born on 27th November 1884 in Upper Holloway, Islington, London.  It is not clear when his first professional postcard designs were published, but an early example is a set of cards for the Rapid Photo Printing Company published in 1909. These were a series of monochrome cartoons featuring the Edwardian fad for rollerskating rinks, under the heading "The Sensations of a Learner” (see PC_Buxton0002).

By 1913 Buxton was producing full-colour cartoons for postcard publishers Inter-Art, A V N Jones & Co and J Beagles & Co. With the outbreak of war in 1914 postcards looked to morale-boosting pictures and Buxton provided illustrations ranging from propaganda to cute kids mirroring contemporary issues.  However, his best work remained the depiction of comic characters in recognisable situations (see PC_Buxton_C1365). He died in 1951 at Richmond on Thames.

E T W Dennis (1847-1923) - Edward Thomas West Dennis was a Quaker who owned the Mercury weekly newspaper in Scarborough. His company produced the first picture postcard in England in 1894 (of North Bay Scarborough, the first with the explicit heading “post card”). The firm’s “Dainty Series” ran from about 1902 – 1910 (see PC_ETWD_Dainty7168).

Ernest Ibbetson (1877-1959) - Ibbetson was a military artist who captured the essence of the British Army in both ceremonial and active service (see PC_Prop0024).

Douglas Tempest (1887-1954) - Tempest began work designing comic images for Bamforth & Co in 1912, including military-related social comment cartoons like these (see PC_WWI_Comic_0023 et seq), and continued to produce cards for Bamforth until his death in 1954.

Reg Carter (1886-1949) - Reginald Arthur Lay Carter, known as Reg, had a studio built at the bottom of his garden before WW1 and started publishing his best-known postcard series 'The Southwold Railway Cartoons’.  During WW1 he produced many more postcards gently lampooning army life (see PC_RCarter_0002).

Fred Spurgin (1882-1966) - Poster designer Frederick Spurgin was born Izydor Spurgin the son of a watch and jewellery repairer in Latvia, Primorsky then part of Russia.  He was a prolific British postcard illustrator of the First World War period.

Arthur Butcher (1889-1956) - Illustrator born in Streatham, London the son of a florist. During World War I he served as a sapper and drew many images, often of nurses and wounded soldiers as well as some glamour cards often in an art-deco style, that were reproduced as postcards.

Sub-albums

Postcards

  • PC_WWI_Comic_0001
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0002
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0003
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0005
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0006
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0007
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0008
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0009
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0010
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0011
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0027
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0028
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0029
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0030
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0032
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0033
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0034
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0035
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0052
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0036
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0048
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0050
  • PC_EB_0002
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0020
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0026
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0054
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0055
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0004
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0016
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0047Postcard franked Felixstowe 1916 - Regent series 2227 - Cartoon by Reg Maurice
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0017
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0022
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0018
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0021
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0025
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0019
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0049Postcard published by Photochrom, London in their Celesque series (design no: 571) Unfranked, but with writing on the back in pencil in a probably young, but neat hand : “…this will be me when I meet the Germans. I will put the Kisers (sic) lights out for a start and then I will finish the rest of the squar (sic) heads, do you reckon? Not half. Pass the Mustard… Love Bill xxxx”
  • PC_WW1_GES-TH3118
  • PC_EB_0001
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0051
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0056 (1)Postcard franked, but location and date unclear - Design by Fred Spurgin Series No 142
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0057
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS01Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 1 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS02Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 2 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS02a (1)Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series also No 2 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS03Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 3 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS04 (1)Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 4 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS06Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 6 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS07Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 7 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS08Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 8 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS09Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 9 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS12Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 12 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS15Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 15 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS16
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS18Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 18 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS19 (1)Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 19 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CS23Photochrom “Camp Silhouette” series No 23 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-CampDrying
  • PC_WWI_Shepheard-AmS38Photochrom “American Silhouette” series No 38 - Artist G E Shepheard
  • PC_WWI_SCS10
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0037
  • PC_Knight_0001
  • PC_Knight_0002
  • PC_Knight_0003
  • PC_EuroWar_FLII-4332
  • PC_Prop0040
  • PC_Prop0001
  • PC_Prop0034
  • PC_Prop0036
  • PC_Prop0037
  • PC_Prop0039
  • PC_Prop0080
  • PC_Prop0102 (1)
  • PC_Prop0114Unused postcard - Pub: Anglo-Eatern Publishing Co., London Captioned : “London’s Welcome to the Zepps” - Note on reverse: "The German aircraft policy of murdering innocent civilians - women and children for choice - will have only one result: it will embitter the Britisher against the Barbarians, from father to son, for 100 years."
  • PC_Prop0104 (1)
  • PC_Prop0020
  • PC_Prop0035
  • PC_Prop0112
  • PC_Prop0029
  • PC_Prop0023
  • PC_WWI_Star2Unused - Pub: Gottschalk & Davis, London - Star series No 2: “Rule Britannia"
  • PC_Prop0067
  • PC_Prop0059
  • PC_Prop0033
  • PC_Prop0021
  • PC_Prop0038
  • PC_Prop0041
  • PC_Prop0065
  • PC_Prop0045
  • PC_Prop0025
  • PC_Prop0043
  • PC_Prop0068
  • PC_Prop0074
  • PC_Prop0111
  • PC_Prop0110
  • PC_Prop0030
  • PC_Prop0066
  • PC_Prop0106
  • PC_Prop0113
  • PC_Prop0042
  • PC_Prop0056
  • PC_Prop0053
  • PC_Prop0054
  • PC_Prop0055
  • PC_Prop0062Puzzle card : The hidden slacker is shown here ->
  • PC_Prop0063Puzzle card : The hidden image of the Kaiser is shown here ->
  • PC_Prop0094Puzzle card : The hidden image of the Zeppelin is shown here ->
  • PC_Prop0095Puzzle card : The hidden image of the Kaiser is shown here ->
  • PC_Prop0060Unused postcard - Hold to the Light series No 5. This image can be seen through the right side of the card when lit from behind.
  • PC_Prop0051
  • PC_Prop0081
  • PC_Prop0005
  • PC_Prop0012a
  • PC_Prop0012b
  • PC_Prop0076
  • PC_Prop0022
  • PC_Prop0028
  • PC_Prop0026
  • PC_Prop0117
  • PC_Prop0002
  • PC_Prop0077
  • PC_Prop0118
  • PC_Prop0014
  • PC_Prop0018
  • PC_Prop0061
  • PC_Prop0006
  • PC_Prop0007
  • PC_Prop0031
  • PC_Prop0057
  • PC_Prop0017
  • PC_Prop0088
  • PC_Prop0009
  • PC_Prop0091
  • PC_Prop0092
  • PC_Prop0010
  • PC_Prop0098-Biggar (1)Unused postcard - Pub: W. R. W. & Co, Glasgow - Atlas Series Drawing signed by J L Biggar
  • PC_Prop0107
  • PC_Prop0108
  • PC_Prop0089
  • PC_Prop0090
  • PC_Prop0093
  • PC_Prop0101 (1)
  • PC_Prop0013
  • PC_Prop0119a
  • PC_Gurnsey_0001
  • PC_ItWWI_0001
  • PC_ItWWI_0002
  • PC_ItWWI_0003
  • PC_ItWWI_0004
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0053Postcard franked 1916 - Pub: E Mack, Hampstead, London
  • PC_Prop0024
  • PC_Prop0052
  • PC_Prop0019
  • PC_GEStudely
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0046
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0045
  • PC_ETWD_Dainty7168
  • PC_ETWD_Dainty7244
  • PC_MauriceR_2645
  • PC_MauriceR_3158
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0024
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0039
  • PC_WWI_Comic0040
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0038
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0044
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0041
  • PC_Bamforth_WC717
  • PC_WWI_Comic_0043
  • PC_Prop0073
  • PC_RCarter_0001
  • PC_RCarter0004
  • PC_RCarter_0003Reference is to the speech which the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon H H Asquith made in moving the Vote of Credit for the War on 6th August 1914, in which he described the terms offered by Germany to the UK in exchange for the latter’s neutrality as “this infamous proposal.”
  • PC_RCarter_0002
  • PC_RCarter_0004
  • PC_Prop-RWB5
  • PC_WWI_A+HGoldenRing119-Spurgin
  • PC_Prop0115-Aylesbury
  • PC_WarBond_0003British National War Bond Campaign postcard No 3 - Pub. Davis & Co, London
  • PC_WarBond_0001British National War Bond Campaign postcard No 1 - Pub. Davis & Co, London
  • PC_WarBond_0004
  • PC_WarBond_0005British National War Bond Campaign postcard No 5 - Pub. Davis & Co, London
  • PC_Warbond_0007
  • PC_WarBond_0008
  • PC_WarBond_0010British National War Bond Campaign postcard No 10 - Pub. Davis & Co, London
  • PC_WarBond_0012
  • PC_Prop0103 (1)
  • PC_Prop0105 (1)
  • PC_Prop0058
  • PC_Prop0071
  • PC_Prop0075
  • PC_Prop0087
  • PC_Prop0064
  • PC_Prop0079
  • PC_Prop0070Unused RP postcard - Issued by France’s Day in aid of the British Committee of the French Red Cross
  • PC_YMCA_001Unused RP Postcard - One of a series of 312 cards published in aid of YMCA Hut Fund to provide “Comforts, Shelter and Recreation for our Soldiers”
  • PC_YMCA_002Unused RP Postcard - One of a series of 312 cards published in aid of YMCA Hut Fund to provide “Comforts, Shelter and Recreation for our Soldiers”
  • PC_WWI_Tuck4332Unused Tuck postcard - The European War series : In the Firing Line II (PC No 4332)
  • PC_YMCA_003 (1)
  • PC_Prop0116
  • PC_Prop0069a
  • PC_Prop0069b
  • PC_Prop0069c
  • PC_Prop0069d
  • PC_Prop-Cavell01
  • PC_Prop-Cavell02
  • PC_FrWWI_0141
  • PC_Prop0048
  • PC_Prop0046
  • PC_Prop0047
  • PC_Prop0085
  • PC_Prop0049
  • PC_Prop0099 (1)
  • PC_Prop0050
  • PC_Prop0084
  • PC_Prop0100 (1)
  • PC_It-GNanni21-4
  • PC_Prop0072
  • PC_Prop0032
  • PC_Prop0082
  • PC_Prop0083
  • PC_Prop0097
  • PC_WSShaw01Used, but unfranked postcard - Design by William Stocker Shaw (1879-?)
  • PC_InterArt_W1198jpg
  • PC_InterArt_OFA1014 (1)
  • PC_Prop0015
  • PC_WWI_Tuck8482
  • PC_WWI_Tuck8838
  • PC_Prop0003
  • PC_InterArt_1924
  • PC_InterArt_1925
  • PC_InterArt_1926
  • PC_Prop0086a
  • PC_Prop0086b
  • PC_Prop0086c
  • PC_Prop0086d
  • PC_Prop0086e
  • PC_Prop-Allies-Mansell1056
  • PC_WW1-Allen01Unused postcard - Caricature of Col A S Redman CB (1910) by ? Allen
  • PC_WW1-Allen02Unused postcard - Caricature of Maj-Gen C G Fuller (1911) by ? Allen
  • PC_WWI-Auteurs
  • PC_WWI-USAF01
  • PC_Prop0109Russo-French propaganda pc (unfranked - used in UK)
  • PC_Frashka01
  • PC_WWI-Modern01Postcard issued in 2017 by the Postcard Interactive Company of Sidney, Australia to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Bullecourt (aka Battle of Arras) April-June 1917 - a lengthy series of battles on the Western Front during World War 1, which resulted in significant casualties among the Australian infantry brigades (and other allied forces) involved.