Tregear's Black Jokes was a collection of more than 40 anti-black racist cartoons, published in London by bookseller Gabriel Shear Tregear in the 1830s. The cartoons could be purchased individually or in bound albums in Tregear's shop. Tregear published two series, Life in Philadelphia (1833) and Tregear's Black Jokes (1834), plus additional cartoons.
Tregear's first series was published in 1833 under the name "Life in Philadelphia." This was the same name that had been used by American illustrator Edward Williams Clay for his 1828-1830 cartoon series, published in the United States. "The cartoons were so popular that the term Life in Philadelphia became a standard phrase to refer to fashions, trends, and—most especially—black Philadelphians' social practices and sartorial choices." [1] : 137 In 1831, British illustrator William Summers redrew and enlarged ten of Clay's cartoons, which were engraved by Charles Hunt, and issued as color lithographs by London publisher Harrison Isaacs.
Of the twelve cartoons in Tregear's initial series, Summers designed and drew nine, two were reissues of Clay cartoons redrawn by Summers (from Isaacs), and Charles Hunt engraved all eleven as lithographs. [2] The last cartoon was credited as "Drawn & Engraved by I. Harris." "I. Harris" is now accepted as a pseudonym for Edward Williams Clay himself. [3] Another eight of the Clay cartoons redrawn by Summers (from Isaacs) were soon reissued to expand the first Tregear series to twenty plates. [4]
While the successful transfer of Clay's cartoons was attributable in part to the shared cultural backgrounds and common understandings of London and Philadelphia, the London cartoons took on a new meaning and form. London artists like Isaacs, Summers, Hunt, and Tregear made changes that signposted shifts in the cartoons' meanings, exaggerated the features of Philadelphian blacks even more grotesquely than had Clay, rendering them more bestial in anatomy and features. [1] : 145
| Plate | Title | Image | Artist | Publisher | Year | Captions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 1 | Dark Conversation |  | William Summers | G. S. Tregear, London | c.1833 | "Bery Black looking day dis Mons'r." "Yes Bery stormy. De Blacks flying about so make it Petickly Disagreable." | |
| No. 2 | An Unfair Reflection | William Summers | G. S. Tregrear, London | c.1833 | "It was bery Unfair ob Mifs Carolina to Reflect on de Palenefs ob my Complexion. I consider dat I hab got a bery Good Color." | ||
| No. 3 | The New Shoes |  | William Summers | G. S. Tregear, London | c.1833 | ||
| No. 4 | The Lub Letter |  | William Summers | G. S. Tregear, London | c.1833 | ||
| No. 5 | A Black Charge |  | William Summers | G. S. Tregear, London | c.1833 | "Please y-'r Worship I hab taken up dis Nigger!! case he-'s -nebriated and -sulting to de Fair sec." | |
| No. 6 | The Valentine |  | William Summers | G. S. Tregear | c.1833 | "Holl'a! What's all dis about— 'De rose is Red de Violets blue' 'De Debil's Black and so are You.' Well dat's bery Fair indeed." | |
| No. 7 | A Black Tea Party |  | William Summers | G. S. Tregear, London | c.1833 | ||
| No. 8 | How you find yourself dis hot Weader Mifs Chloe? |  | "Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Edward William Clay) | Harrison Isaacs, London | c.1831 | ||
| No. 9 | Have you any Flesh coloured Silk Stockings, young Man? |  | "Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Edward Williams Clay) | Harrison Isaacs, London | c.1831 | ||
| No. 10 | A Black Ball |  | William Summers | G. S. Tregear, London | c.1833 | ||
| No. 11 | Grand Celebration ob de Bobalition ob African Slabery |  | Drawn & engraved by I. Harris (Edward Williams Clay) [3] | G. S. Tregear, London | 1833 | ||
| No. 12 | Romeo and Juliet |  | William Summers | G. S. Tregear, London | c.1833 | ROMEO._"How Silber sweet, sounds Lubbers Tongues by Night; like sorptest Music to attending Ears." JULIET._"Dou know'st de mask ob night is on my face, else would a |
In 1831, William Summers and Charles Hunt copied ten cartoons from Edward Williams Clay's Life in Philadelphia series for publisher Harrison Isaacs. [2] Tregear's version of Life in Philadelphia initially reprinted two of the cartoons from Isaacs, but soon added eight more, bringing its number of plates to twenty. [4]
At least two alternate cartoons, copied from Clay, were reissued by Tregear under the name "Life in Philadelphia."
Tregear's second series was titled Tregear's Black Jokes, being a Series of Laughable Caricatures in the March of Manners amongst the Blacks. [2] It consisted of twenty new cartoons drawn by Summers and engraved by Hunt, and was published in 1834.
The second series was reissued in 1860 by London publisher T. C. Lewis. [2]
Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. From 1850, John Tenniel was the chief cartoon artist at the magazine for over 50 years.
A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine artistic skill, hyperbole and satire in order to either question authority or draw attention to corruption, political violence and other social ills.
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.
Honoré-Victorin Daumier was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second Napoleonic Empire in 1870. He earned a living throughout most of his life producing caricatures and cartoons of political figures and satirizing the behavior of his countrymen in newspapers and periodicals, for which he became well known in his lifetime and is still known today. He was a republican democrat who attacked the bourgeoisie, the church, lawyers and the judiciary, politicians, and the monarchy. He was jailed for several months in 1832 after the publication of Gargantua, a particularly offensive and discourteous depiction of King Louis-Philippe. Daumier was also a serious painter, loosely associated with realism.
Events from the year 1869 in art.
Jean Ignace Isidore Gerard was a prolific 19th century French illustrator and caricaturist who published under the pseudonym of Grandville. He has been called "the first star of French caricature's great age", and Grandville's book illustrations described as featuring "elements of the symbolic, dreamlike, and incongruous, and they retain a sense of social commentary." "His perverse vision sought the monster in everyone and took delight in the strangest and most pernicious transfigurement of the human shape ever produced by the Romantic imagination." The anthropomorphic vegetables and zoomorphic figures that populated his cartoons anticipated and influenced the work of generations of cartoonists and illustrators from John Tenniel, to Gustave Doré, to Félicien Rops, and Walt Disney. He has also been called a "proto-surrealist" and was greatly admired by André Breton and others in the movement.
Charles William James Keeping was an English illustrator, children's book author and lithographer. He made the illustrations for Rosemary Sutcliff's historical novels for children, and he created more than twenty picture books. He also illustrated the complete works of Charles Dickens for the Folio Society.
Edward Sorel is an American illustrator, caricaturist, cartoonist, graphic designer and author. His work is known for its storytelling, its left-liberal social commentary, its criticism of reactionary right-wing politics and organized religion. Formerly a regular contributor to The Nation, New York Magazine and The Atlantic, his work is today seen more frequently in Vanity Fair. He has been hailed by The New York Times as "one of America's foremost political satirists". As a lifelong New Yorker, a large portion of his work interprets the life, culture and political events of New York City. There is also a large body of work which is nostalgic for the stars of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood when Sorel was a youth. Sorel is noted for his wavy pen-and-ink style, which he describes as "spontaneous direct drawing".
Le Charivari was an illustrated magazine published in Paris, France, from 1832 to 1937. It published caricatures, political cartoons and reviews. After 1835, when the government banned political caricature, Le Charivari began publishing satires of everyday life. The name refers to the folk practice of holding a charivari, a loud, riotous parade, to shame or punish wrongdoers.
Edmund Blampied was one of the most eminent artists to come from the Channel Islands, yet he received no formal training in art until he was 15 years old. He was noted mostly for his etchings and drypoints published at the height of the print boom in the 1920s during the etching revival, but was also a lithographer, caricaturist, cartoonist, book illustrator and artist in oils, watercolours, silhouettes and bronze.
Gabriel Shear Tregear, also known as Gabriel Shire Tregear, was an English publisher of caricatures and prints. Active from the late 1820s until his death, he operated his "Humorous and Sporting Print Shop" from quarters near today's 123 Cheapside, London. Artists and caricaturists published by Tregear included a member of the Cruikshank family of caricaturists, Isaac Robert Cruikshank.
This is a timeline of significant events in comics prior to the 20th century.
John Doyle, known by the pen name H. B., was an Irish political cartoonist, caricaturist, painter and lithographer.
Robert Seymour was a British illustrator known for his illustrations for The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens and for his caricatures. He committed suicide after arguing with Dickens over the illustrations for Pickwick.
Edward Henry Corbould, R.I. was a British artist, noted as a historical painter and watercolourist.
Life in Philadelphia was a series of satirical cartoons drawn and engraved by Edward Williams Clay between 1828 and 1830. He modeled them after the British series Life in London (1821), by George and Robert Cruikshank. The Cruikshank cartoons had mocked supposed class differences; Clay's cartoons mocked supposed racial differences.
C.J. Grant was a British artist and illustrator, chiefly remembered for his work as an engraver of political caricatures during the mid-1830s. His most remarkable work was The Political Drama (1833–1836), a series of 131 wood-engraved political satires expressing the views of the Radical movement and attacking the conduct of the Whig and Tory factions for failing to introduce more democratic constitutional reforms. He would go on to produce woodcuts for several Chartist newspaper titles during the late-1830s and early-1840s but his career appears to have entered a period of decline thereafter. His last known print was published in 1852 and it is possible that he died shortly thereafter. He typically signed his prints "C.J. Grant" or "C.J.G."
Edward Williams Clay was an American artist, illustrator and political cartoonist. He created the notoriously racist collection of lithographs titled Life in Philadelphia. He was also a notable comic strip pioneer.
Thomas Lord Busby, sometimes spelt Busbey, was an English portrait artist, etcher, and engraver.
Henry R. Robinson, also known as H. R. Robinson was an American lithographer and publisher active in New York City between 1831 and 1850.
