The Caricature Magazine or Hudibrastic Mirror was a British fortnightly magazine of humorous and satirical prints, first issued in 1806 by London publisher Thomas Tegg, and edited by George Woodward, the comic author and caricaturist, upon whose designs many of its prints were originally based. The British artist Thomas Rowlandson was a leading contributor and took over its direction after Woodward's death in 1809. The magazine's lively coloured designs by leading caricaturists of the day and comparatively low pricing were an immediate success and Tegg continued to publish the magazine until 1819. Tegg also reissued back numbers as bound volumes; prints from these volumes survive in quite large numbers and are among the best known surviving Georgian social caricatures.
Isaac Cruikshank after G.M.Woodward A Long Headed Assembly 1807 Caricature Magazine (British Museum)
The magazine was launched in 1806, offered on subscription, and advertised widely by Thomas Tegg in magazines such as The Monthly Magazine,[1] Monthly Literary Recreations,[2] and The Sun.[3] A short-lived but successful precursor, The Laughable Magazine, seems to have been launched by Rowlandson in May 1806 before Rowlandson and Woodward joined forces to produce The Caricature Magazine. No surviving intact copies of The Laughable Magazine are recorded but a surviving title page, similar in design to one later used by The Caricature Magazine, indicates that it offered prints by Rowlandson after "Sir Edmund Bunbury". This was probably Sir Edward Henry Bunbury, second son of William Henry Bunbury, the caricaturist. Some of the prints from the Laughable Magazine can be found in the British Museum and elsewhere; many relate to popular songs, for example, Black, Brown and Fair.[4]The Laughable Magazine is also advertised on the wrappers for the original issue in parts of The Caricature Magazine. Tegg continued to advertise The Caricature Magazine heavily over the next few years,[5] and judging by the number of surviving prints from it, it had a relatively large circulation.
Each issue of The Caricature Magazine comprised two caricatures in a blue paper wrapper, initially priced at 'two shillings coloured, one shilling plain'. The prints were straightforward etchings without aquatint, all of a similar size around 12 x 8 1/2 inches and could made quickly and be used in large print runs. The wrapper was printed in black on front and back; the front had a woodblock vignette of four Lilliputian figures, surrounded by a letterpress inscription: 'The Caricature Magazine or Hudibrastic Mirror containing a most capital collection of Caricatures from original drawings by G.M.Woodward, Esq, Author of Eccentric Excursions in England and Wales and engraved by Mr Rowlandson, Author of the Laughable Magazine'. Further publication details below the vignette listed the London bookshops that stocked the magazine. The back of the wrapper had advertisements for some of Tegg's other publications. Examples of the first sixteen issues of the Caricature magazine in their original wrappers survive in the Huntington Library Pasadena [6] and in the collection of William A Gordon of Glencoe, Illinois.[7]
Contributors
Thomas Rowlandson The Corsican Spider in his Web (1808) Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum)
Although Woodward was widely known to his contemporaries as a popular comic author, as an artist and caricaturist he was only an amateur. He served as an 'ideas man' for the magazine, making rough sketches of satires and devising jokes which were then transformed into etchings by Rowlandson and others. Woodward had previously devised a large number of designs for caricatures for Samuel William Fores and others as well as to illustrate his own books such as Eccentric Excursions (1796).[8]
Thomas Rowlandson Distillers looking into their own Business, Caricature Magazine (Wellcome Institute, London) Thomas Rowlandson Sports of a Country Fair (1811), Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Although Rowlandson is given as the leading artist on the printed wrappers for the fortnightly issue in parts, in the first instance he appears to been merely lending his name to the project as an established 'brand'. The prints in the first few issues were mostly etched by Isaac Cruikshank after Woodward's designs. Prints by Rowlandson did not appear till April 1807. Over time Rowlandson etched well over 200 prints for the magazine including celebrated images such as Distillers Looking into their own Business (1811), Portsmouth Point (1814) [9] and Dropsy Courting Consumption [10] Other contributors included John Cawse, George Cruikshank, Isaac Cruikshank, Robert Cruikshank, William Elmes, Henry Heath, William Heath, Lewis Marks, Piercy Roberts, and Charles Williams
Not all of the prints issued in The Caricature Magazine were original to the magazine. Tegg bought up the caricature plates of other printsellers who had gone out of business such as Elizabeth Jackson and Piercy Roberts.
The bound volumes
At the same time as selling new issues, Tegg sold individual issues and compilations of the back numbers of the magazine that could be bound up as a volume. The publication in parts included a title page and a tailpiece every fifty or so prints precisely for this purpose. Some of the endpieces include caricature portraits of Woodward and of Tegg and possibly some of the other contributors such as Rowlandson.[11]
Tegg used a system of numbering to index his large stock of caricature prints. These are typically etched into the top margin of the plate and are now commonly known as 'Tegg Numbers'. He changed this numbering system at least twice over time, renumbering some plates to the revised system, so that it is possible to find impressions of the same plate printed at different times with two or three different different numbers, and conversely, impressions of two different plates may be found with the same number. Unlike some of Tegg's other compilations, such as The Wits Magazine and Attic Miscellany, there was no uniform edition of accumulated Caricature Magazine published once the publication in parts was completed and surviving examples of the volumes all appear to be ad hoc assemblies of a selection plates, with many minor differences between sets.
Thomas Rowlandson after G.M.Woodward. Business and Pleasure.Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Restrikes from the Caricature Magazine plates continue to be made right up until the 1840s, often poorly printed and with slapdash colouring. Later reissues of 'Tegg' caricature plates usually have the original publication date removed from the plate, retaining just Tegg's Name and address at 111 Cheapside and of the price ("1s coloured 6d plain"). In prints satirising specific political events however, such as the rise and fall of Napoleon, the date was mostly left on.
Later on, even larger "Caricature Magazine" compilations were created for mid-19th Century collectors of caricatures, extending to as many as 5 volumes. Examples with their Tegg title pages and end pieces can be found in a number of major libraries with large caricature holdings, including Yale University Library, Lewis Walpole Library Farmington, Connecticut Princeton, Houghton Library Harvard, the Pierpont Morgan Library New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and other collections. However the large later compilations also included caricatures that were never published in the original Caricature Magazine. Among these are reduced size copies of James Gillray prints that had originally published by the London publisher Thomas Miller in the 1820s, and prints that had been independently published by Rowlandson himself - and not by Tegg - in the early 1800s.
Rowlandson's Caricature Magazine
Woodward died in 1809. Rowlandson took over as the leading name and title pages after that date bear his name rather than Woodward's (see title pages below). Rowlandson contributed nearly 200 further prints to the Magazine after Woodward's death, alongside prints by Charles Williams (caricaturist), Isaac Cruikshank and George Cruikshank.
Subject matter
George Cruikshank Dandy pickpockets, diving 1818 Caricature Magazine
Initially the Caricature Magazine offered predominantly social caricature, but later included a limited amount of political satire, including many prints against Napoleon in the period 1807-1814 and a few on the Royal family. (Tegg's extensive series of prints on the Duke of York and the 1809 Clarke scandal were published separately by Tegg and not as part of the Caricature Magazine, although they employed a similar format and the same artists.) A comment on slavery is seen in William Elmes's two satires in comic strip form on West Indian plantation owners - The Adventures of Johnny Newcome.[12][13]
The Caricature Magazine's caricatures offer a wealth of visual information and insight into daily life in the Georgian era and thus are frequently found as illustrations in modern history books for the era. They comment on a multitude of everyday subjects such as religion, [14] divorce, [15] doctors,[16] barbers,[17] servants,[18] eating, [19] dentistry,[20] prostitution, [21] sailors,[22] taxes,[23] etc., etc., throwing light onto on Georgian social customs and attitudes, as well as commenting on novelties in fashion such as the transgressive Dandyism, and technological innovations such as the Velocipede, forerunner of the modern bicycle.[24]
The Secret History of Crim Con, Fig 1; Thomas Rowlandson after George Woodward. Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
The Caricature Magazine's widespread popularity made it influential in developing and spreading the formulas and conventions of modern mass-market comic illustration.[25]Woodward is recognized as one of the originators of the modern comic strip, using a sequence of related images to tell a story; a technique he first adopted in a series of strip caricatures for Samuel William Fores made in the 1790s.
He was also an early proponent of the "single gag" image, forerunner of the modern pocket cartoon, providing captions for a joke with a punchline - often extremely laboured or feeble - to accompany a comic image. Not all Woodward's images were captioned however, and some of his designs use just body language and exaggerated facial expression to express a comic situation or character.
Gallery of Caricature Magazine title pages and end pieces
Isaac Cruikshank after George Woodward. Title page for Volume 1 of the Caricature Magazine (British Museum)
Charles Williams after George Woodward. Tail piece for Volume 1 of The Caricature Magazine; (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Charles Williams after George Woodward. Title page for Volume 2 of the Caricature Magazine; (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Charles WilliamsTailpiece for Volume 2 of The Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Charles Williams after George Woodward. Title page for Volume 3 of The Caricature Magazine (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Thomas Rowlandson Tail piece for Volume 3 of The Caricature Magazine. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Thomas Rowlandson Title page to volume 4 of The Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Thomas Rowlandson Title page for Volume 5 of The Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Thomas Rowlandson Title page for Rowlandson's Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Notes
↑ "Advertisement". The Monthly Magazine, or British Register (22). London. 1806.
↑ "Advertisement p339". Monthly Literary Recreations or a Magazine for General Information and Amusement. 1. London: 339. 1806.
↑ Thomas Rowlandson (1807). Black, Brown & Fair (hand-coloured etching). British Museum. 1872,1012.4915.
↑ "Advertisement". The Times. London. 15 December 1807.
↑ George M. Woodward (1807). The Caricature Magazine (hand-coloured etching). Thomas Tegg museum=Huntington Library, Pasadena. 123884. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
↑ Gordon, William A. (2020). A Supplementary Catalogue of the Books, Drawings, Prints and Periodicals Forming the William A. Gordon Library of British Caricature. Glencoe, Illinois: privately published. p.192. ISBN978-0-578-690-858.
↑ Woodward, George M. (1796). Eccentric Excursions Or, Literary & Pictorial Sketches of Countenance, Character & Country, in Different Parts of England & South Wales. ... Embellished with Upwards of One Hundred Characteristic & Illustrative Prints. London: Allen & Co.
↑ Thomas Rowlandson (1814). Portsmouth Point (hand-coloured etching). British Museum. 1872,1012.5049.
↑ Isaac Cruikshank after George Woodward (1807). The exciseman and the countryman (hand-coloured etching). British Museum. 1948,0214.748.
↑ George Cruikshank (1819). Royal Hobbies (hand-coloured etching). British Museum. 1868,0808.8431.
↑ Maidment, Brian (2013). Comedy, Caricature and the Social Order, 1820-50. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN978-0-719-075261.
Works cited
George, M Dorothy (1870–1954). Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. The British Museum.
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings. Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, and can serve a political purpose, be drawn solely for entertainment, or for a combination of both. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in newspapers and news magazines as political cartoons, while caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment magazines. In literature, a caricature is a distorted representation of a person in a way that exaggerates some characteristics and oversimplifies others.
John Leech was a British caricaturist and illustrator. He was best known for his work for Punch, a humorous magazine for a broad middle-class audience, combining verbal and graphic political satire with light social comedy. Leech catered to contemporary prejudices, such as anti-Americanism and antisemitism and supported acceptable social reforms. Leech's critical yet humorous cartoons on the Crimean War helped shape public attitudes toward heroism, warfare, and Britons' role in the world.
James Gillray was a British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810. Many of his works are held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Henry William Bunbury was an English caricaturist. The second son of Sir William Bunbury, 5th Baronet, of Mildenhall, Suffolk, he came of an old Norman family. He was educated at Westminster School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and soon showed a talent for drawing, especially for humorous subjects. He temporarily left Cambridge to embark on a tour of Europe, during which time he may have studied in Rome; he returned to school in 1771 but is not known to have completed a degree. His European travels inspired a series of caricatures mocking foreigners, notably his La Cuisine de la Poste, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1770.
James Sayers was an English caricaturist. Many of his works are described in the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum which has an extensive holdings of his works collected at the time of original publication by Sarah Sophia Banks.
Thomas Rowlandson was an English artist and caricaturist of the Georgian Era, noted for his political satire and social observation. A prolific artist and printmaker, Rowlandson produced both individual social and political satires, as well as a large number of illustrations for novels, humorous books, and topographical works. Like other caricaturists of his age such as James Gillray, his caricatures are often robust or bawdy. Rowlandson also produced highly explicit erotica for a private clientele; this was never published publicly at the time and is now only found in a small number of collections. His caricatures included those of people in power such as the Duchess of Devonshire, William Pitt the Younger and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Rudolph Ackermann was an Anglo-German bookseller, inventor, lithographer, publisher and businessman.
George Cruikshank or Cruickshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.
John Kay was a Scottish caricaturist and engraver.
Isaac Cruikshank was a Scottish painter and caricaturist, known for his social and political satire.
George Murgatroyd Woodward (1765–1809), more commonly known as George 'Moutard' ("Mustard") Woodward, was an English caricaturist and humor writer. He was a friend and drinking companion of Thomas Rowlandson.
Mary and Matthew Darly were English printsellers and caricaturists during the 1770s. Mary Darly was a printseller, caricaturist, artist, engraver, writer, and teacher. She wrote, illustrated, and published the first book on caricature drawing, A Book of Caricaturas [sic], aimed at "young gentlemen and ladies." Mary was the wife of Matthew Darly, also called Matthias, a London printseller, furniture designer, and engraver. Mary was evidently the second wife of Matthew; his first was named Elizabeth Harold.
The twelve-volume Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum is the primary reference work for the study of British satirical prints of the 18th and 19th century. Most of the content of the catalogue is now available through the British Museum's on-line database.
Samuel William Fores, normally credited on his publications as S. W. Fores was an English publisher and printseller with a renowned print shop at No 3 Piccadilly, London during the 'Golden Age' of Georgian satirical prints. Fores faced prosecution several times for the allegedly libellous nature of his satires. His sons George Thomas Fores (1806–58) and Arthur Blücher Fores (1814–83) succeeded him in the business, publishing predominantly sporting prints,and the family firm continued as printsellers and publishers for over 200 years.
Piercy Roberts was an English publisher, printmaker, and caricaturist active between 1785 and 1824. Most of his prints are caricatures, some after his own designs and some after others such as George Moutard Woodward. He collaborated with Thomas Rowlandson on several prints, most notably a pair of portraits of Josephine Beauharnais and Napoleon.
William Holland was a leading London print seller and radical publisher who was fined £100 and imprisoned in 1793 for a year for seditious libel.
Elizabeth Jackson was a London print seller, significant in particular for being the publisher of nearly seventy prints by the young Thomas Rowlandson in the mid 1780s.
William Elmes, was an English caricaturist.
Eleanor Lay, usually styled Mrs Lay, was a publisher and print-seller, with a fashionable print shop on The Steine in Brighton. As well as selling prints from London publishers, she designed and published a number of prints herself, including four views of Brighton in 1788, dedicated to Mrs Fitzherbert. The original watercolours by Lay are in the Brighton Museum.
Elizabeth Dacheray was an English publisher and print seller, with a shop at St. James Street, London. Around sixty of her prints are in the British Museum and are described in volume six of the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum.
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Isaac Cruikshank after George Woodward. Title page for Volume 1 of the Caricature Magazine (British Museum)
Charles Williams after George Woodward. Tail piece for Volume 1 of The Caricature Magazine; (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Charles Williams after George Woodward. Title page for Volume 2 of the Caricature Magazine; (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Charles WilliamsTailpiece for Volume 2 of The Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Charles Williams after George Woodward. Title page for Volume 3 of The Caricature Magazine (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Thomas Rowlandson Tail piece for Volume 3 of The Caricature Magazine. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Thomas Rowlandson Title page to volume 4 of The Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Thomas Rowlandson Title page for Volume 5 of The Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Thomas Rowlandson Title page for Rowlandson's Caricature Magazine (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
