CARICATURE
AND
OTHER COMIC ART
IN ALL TIMES AND MANY LANDS
By JAMES PARTON
WITH 203 ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS
FRANKLIN SQUARE
1877
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
(p. 7) PREFACE.
In this volume there is, I believe, a greater variety of pictures of acomic and satirical cast than was ever before presented at one view.Many nations, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, are representedin it, as well as most of the names identified with art of this nature.The extraordinary liberality of the publishers, and the skill of theircorps of engravers, have seconded my own industrious researches, and theresult is a volume unique, at least, in the character of itsillustrations. A large portion of its contents appeared in Harper'sMonthly Magazine during the year 1875; but many of the most curious andinteresting of the pictures are given here for the first time; notably,those exhibiting the present or recent caricature of Germany, Spain,Italy, China, and Japan, several of which did not arrive in time for usein the periodical.
Generally speaking, articles contributed to a Magazine may as well beleft in their natural tomb of "back numbers," or "bound volumes;" forthe better they serve a temporary purpose, the less adapted they are forpermanent utility. Among the exceptions are such series as the present,which had no reference whatever to the passing months, and in thepreparation of which a great expenditure was directed to a single classof objects of special interest. I am, indeed, amazed at the cost ofproducing such articles as these. So very great is the expense, thatmany subjects could not be adequately treated, with all desirableillustration, unless the publishers could offer the work to the publicin portions.
There is not much to be said upon the subject treated in this volume.When I was invited by the learned and urbane editor of Harper'sMonthly to furnish a number of articles upon caricature, I supposedthat the work proposed would be a relief after labors too arduous, toolong continued, and of a more serious character. On the contrary, nosubject that I ever attempted presented such baffling difficulties.After ransacking the world for specimens, (p. 8) and collecting them bythe hundred, I found that, usually, a caricature is a thing of a moment,and that, dying as soon as its moment has passed, it loses all power tointerest, instantly and forever. I found, too, that our respectableancestors had not the least notion of what we call decency. When,therefore, I had laid aside from the mass the obsolete and the improper,there were not so very many left, and most of those told their own storyso plainly that no elucidation was necessary. Instead of wearying thereader with a mere descriptive catalogue, I have preferred to accompanythe pictures with allusions to contemporary satire other than pictorial.
The great living authorities upon