EVER-OPEN DOOR 1913 John Bernard Partridge Augustine Birrell PUNCH CARTOON PAGE

Original 10 1/2 inch x 8 1/4 inch Wood Engraved Cartoon page titled THE EVER-OPEN DOOR from Punch, November 26, 1913.

Mr. Birrell. “DON’T TEMPT ME TOO FAR, MY DEAR CARSON, OR ON MY HONOUR AND CONSCIENCE I SHALL HAVE TO PUT YOU THROUGH THIS.”

Augustine Birrell KC (1850 – 1933) was a British Liberal Party politician, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916. In this post, he was praised for enabling tenant farmers to own their property, and for extending university education for Catholics. But he was criticised for failing to take action against the rebels before the Easter Rising.
Edward Henry Carson, Baron Carson, PC (1854 – 1935), from 1900 to 1921 known as Sir Edward Carson, was an Irish unionist politician, barrister and judge. From 1905 Carson was both the Irish Unionist Alliance MP for Trinity College Dublin and leader of the Ulster Unionist Council in Belfast. Carson campaigned against Home Rule. He spoke against the Bill in the House of Commons and organised rallies in Ireland promoting a provisional government for "the Protestant province of Ulster" to be ready, should a third Home Rule Bill come into law.

The cartoon is by John Bernard Partridge (1861 - 1945). An English illustrator born in London. Partridge was educated at Stonyhurst College, and after matriculating at the University of London entered the office of Dunn & Hansom, architects. He then joined for a couple of years a firm of stained-glass designers (Lavers, Barraud and Westlake), learning drapery and ornament; and then studied and executed church ornament under Philip Westlake, 1880–1884. He began illustration for the press and practised watercolour painting, but his chief success was derived from book illustration. In 1891 he joined the staff of Punch and, in 1910, became its chief cartoonist, replacing Edward Linley Sambourne. During his time at Punch, Partridge published several cartoons showing his support for the Suffragist movement. He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and of The Pastel Society

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.

The page is in very good condition with a soft vertical crease. Reverse side blank.