Christmas, Belated

CHRISTMAS, BELATED

It's comforting to know, as we recover in January, that the Victorian Christmas was as excessive as our own - from turn-of-the-century complaints about Christmas starting early ("The note of preparation for the great festival of the Christian Church, which was sounded early in November when the windows of the stationers, the booksellers' shops, and the railway stalls became suddenly gay with the coloured plates of Christmas numbers ") to the vast consumption of food and drink. I mention it now, because I just came across the attached in Cruikshank (1841 Comic Almanack) - as always, one is left with the impression that nothing changes.

Cruikshank's Comic Almanack

CRUIKSHANK'S COMIC ALMANACK

Cruikshank's Comic Almanack includes, amongst a lot of Victorian humorous prose (which doesn't generally seem very funny today) a cartoon for each month of the year, which I do tend to find fascinating ... not so much for their humour as the marvellous detail. My favourite for humour is, however, November 1838's 'Guys in Council', presaging Larson's "Far Side" et al. To browse all the months from 1835-1838, see the page I've created, as promised below.

Cruikshank's Comic Almanack

Cruikshank's Comic Almanack



A teaser for forthcoming pics on www.victorianlondon.org ... a complete set of the 'months' in the great cartoonist's Almanack, 1835-38, and some other selections. What I love about Cruikshank is the level of painterly detail that goes into every cartoon. Above is April 1835 (on the theme of April showers) - note the "Umbrella Depot" ... certainly Victorian shops were commonly called "Warehouses" (eg. "Jay's Mourning Warehouse") and I suspect "Depot" was commonplace too.