MR. PUNCH AT HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 50, 28 February 1931, Page 10 (Supplement)

MR. PUNCH AT HOME.

EXHIBITION OF FAMOUS DRAWINGS. PUNCH AS HISTORIAN AND PROPHET. From Our Own Correspondent.) Mr. Punch, who has just moved into his fine new offices in Bouverie Street, is celebrating the occasion with an exhibition of his treasures, original drawings by Leech, Keenc, Tenniel and du Maurier, the first number which appeared on July 17, 1841, and prints of all the most famous cartoons and jokes. The visitors at the exhibition were almost as interesting as the drawings, as many of them had known the artists or were collectors of "Punch" from its earliest numbers. The clergymen and university dons were in the majority and the world of "bright young things" was conspicuous by its absence and did nothing to jar upon their more sober elders as they sighed over the beaux and belles of their youth.

Hunting takes up a large share of Leech's sketches, and the plums of the

collection, so far as he is concerned, are his studies for Jorrocks, of which there are four, including the sketch for the cover, which hardly satisfied the artist, as he lias scribbled a note to that effect at the foot. Many proud owners of "Handley Cross, or Mr. Jorrocks' Hunt," must be coming to compare their original cover with this rough sketch. Another interesting Leech drawing is his sketch for the "Illustrated London News" of Jenny.Lind at Covent Garden in 1847. Charles Keene was the George Belcher of his day, although he did not confine himself to the charlady class as Belcher does, but he delighted in quaint types, and Scotsmen and Irishmen figure in his drawings, for there is to his credit the famous drawing of "The Gintleman that Pays the Rint." The last contribution he ever made is there also, " 'Arry on the Boulevards." Sir John Tenniel's cartoons are represented by i 5 orioinal drawings, _ of which "Advance Australia!" will be the most interesting to overseas visitors. The drawing room art of George du Maurier is notable for quality rather than and we hungered to see more of his lovely women. Funniest of all is his "Gratitude, the enthusiastic patient who, on leaving hospital, says to his charming nurse: 'I thank you kindly, Miss, for all your goodness. I shall never forget it!

If ever there was a fallen Hangel, you're one!"

An Australian visitor to the exhibition told one of the staff that the only modern English she knew she had learnt from the pages of "Punch," and there are doubtless many who could agree with her, although the statement rather takes one's breath away in its revelation of the importance" of "Punch" _ in the lives of the people of the Empire. Another visitor seemed to feel something of the same thing, for as he left the room he said: "It's not only interesting, it's history."

Sir Owen Seaman, who Svas conducting a friend round, pointed out the interesting corner of the room decorated with what are called "Mr. Punch's Forecasts." Of these nearly all have come true, except one showing a train steaming across the Channel waves, but those which have been fulfilled include the photophone, which forecasts television, an .electric kitchen, and, in 1858, the Serpentine as a seaside resort, which has come to pass under Mr. Lansbury, in 1930. George du Maurier, in his "Lost Illusions," foreshadows dress reform for men, when he makes his young lady sigh because the Adonis she met at the seaside looks so very inferior when she meets him in London. Du Maurier has actually scribbled on the drawing the moral that young men should always wear white

flannel shirts and knickerbockers and look like Greek gods. The atmosphere of the new "Punch" "office" is that of a beautiful and wellordered private house, in which tho dining room is one of the most famous rooms in the world, for here is the Kound Table, where the next number is settled, and in the unvarnished wood are cut the initials, of all the great artists and writers and editors from Mark Lemon onwards. Visitors who enter do so with a feeling of awe, as if the great shades of the past were there comment- j ing on the new home of their beloved Round Table. I