GEORGE CRUIKSHANK (1792-1878)

"The Protestant House that Jack Built," Autograph manuscript signed [London, ca. 1845], 4 pages.

Book illustrator and caricaturist George Cruikshank had a long and prolific career, during which he illustrated contemporary novels by many of the major Victorian novelists, classic novels and political tracts by himself and others. He began as a caricaturist in the tradition of Gillray and Rowlandson, taking the radical side on issues of the day. Beginning about 1850, he devoted the remainder of his life to the causes of temperance and antismoking.

This satirical plea for Protestantism, against what Cruikshank saw as an incursion of papacy into England, was published as a pamphlet in 1845. Cruikshank wrote the text and designed the woodcuts.

Gift of W. Atlee Burpee, Jr.

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