SOLD OUT 1913 Leonard Raven-Hill - Duke of Bedford PUNCH CARTOON PAGE

Original 10 1/2 inch x 8 1/4 inch Wood Engraved Cartoon page titled SOLD OUT from Punch, December 24, 1913.

Father Christmas (in Covent Garden). “GOT ANY HOLLY AND MISTLETOE FOR ME?”
Duke of Bedford. “SORRY, SIR, I’M OFF. NOTHING LEFT BUT STRAWBERRY LEAVES.”

The Bedford Estate is an estate in central London that is owned by the Russell family, which holds the peerage title of Duke of Bedford. The estate was originally based in Covent Garden, then stretched to include Bloomsbury in 1669. The Covent Garden property was sold for £2 million in 1913 by Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford, to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option to the Beecham family for £250,000; the sale was finalised in 1918.

The cartoon is by Leonard Raven-Hill (1867 - 1942). An English artist, illustrator and cartoonist. He was born in Bath and educated at Bristol Grammar School and the Devon county school. He studied art at the Lambeth School of Art and then in Paris under MM. Bougereau and Aimé Morot. He began to exhibit at the Salon in 1887 but moved back to London when he was appointed as the art editor of Pick-Me-Up. He also continued to work as a painter and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1889. In 1893 he founded, with Arnold Golsworthy, the humorous and artistic monthly The Butterfly (1893–94, revived in 1899-1900) but began his most prominent association with a publication when his drawings appeared in Punch in December 1895. By 1901 he had joined the staff of Punch as the junior political cartoonist. He contributed to many other illustrated magazines including The Daily Graphic, Daily Chronicle, The Strand Magazine, The Sketch, Pall Mall Gazette and Windsor Magazine.

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. Reverse side blank.