They told me I should enjoy myself

McGill has drawn many cards of drinking and drunks. There are also a few about the morning after ... this is one of them.

The first version of this card was published as ES 3132. The card has not been posted so there is no date on it, however it probably dates from 1907 or 1908. (Thanks to David White for sending me this card which is an earlier version than the ones I had !)

E.S. 3132

Hutson Bros. reprinted this card as No. HB 637 which was printed in Holland. Again there is no date on it, but most McGill HB cards were published between 1908 and 1912. 

This card mentions an 'exhibition' which does help to date it more precisely. The most likely event is the Franco-British Exhibition held in London between 14th May and 31st October 1908 as a celebration of the Entente Cordiale signed in 1904 between France and Britain.

HB 637
No postmark

Another version of HB 637 exists which looks like it may have been printed specifically for Douglas on the Isle of Man but uses part of the ES version caption.

HB 637
Postmarked 1908

Another version of this card was published by Hutson Bros. but this time without a number, and a different caption. This one is postmarked 1908.

This HB version has then been copied and published by an unidentified publisher. The card has no signature but was 'Printed in Germany' which dates it as pre-1914. The caption has been changed which makes it much more generic. I have two copies of this card, one has 'Made in Germany' on the reverse and the other has a number as well as 'Printed in Germany'. I have other examples of HB cards being 'copied' by this mystery printer/publisher.

Unknown publisher, No. Series 3097
Postmarked 1914

McGill obviously liked the idea of this image and drew a variation of it in 1911 for Joseph Asher & Co. but this time it mentions the 'Coronation' instead on the 'Exhibition'. The Coronation would have been that of King George V which took place on 22nd June 1911. As can be seen this card is very similar to the other image, the basic structural elements are there but with a few details changed. 

Joseph Asher & Co., No. 701
Postmarked 1911

I don't care - You won't care

An example of a card with three caption variations. One is obviously a 'reply' card to the other.

Milton Renowed No. 1513

Milton Renowned No. 1513

  

Inter-Art Co. Comique No. A 6363

I'm presuming there is a card out there numbered Inter-Art Co. 6363, but which caption will it have?

Father's Box of Tools

Following on from my previous post I'm going to look at the almost parasitic relationship the E.L.P. Co. had with the McGill cards published by Pictorial in their E.S. series.

For example, E.S. published a series of cards by McGill titled 'Father's Box of Tools' documenting the new craze of do-it-yourself, of Edwardian men retiring to their shed to make something for the house or garden and the ensuing disasters. There are five, possibly six, cards in the series and E.L.P. copied every one of them. Here are a couple of examples:


Another example is the 'The Motorist's Trials' series of McGill cards published by E.S. These documented some of the dangers on the roads during the early days of motor cars. Again E.L.P. copied all six of the cards. However this time all the captions have been changed ... perhaps they didn't like the implicit digs about the upper classes and their contempt for the newly emerging middle classes! Again, here are a couple of examples:


Overall at first glance the copies are quite good. On closer inspection though the lines are not as precise as those drawn by McGill, the whole impression is cruder and the colours are not as subtle presumably due to cheaper printing methods.

Has it ever occurred to you?

It wasn't long after I starting collecting McGill cards that I began to come across cards that looked like his but weren't signed by him. Some of them looked almost exactly the same as a signed card I had in my collection often with the same caption although not always.

"Almost exactly the same" being the operative phrase. Closer inspection showed these were very clever copies. Some better than others.

Were they copies by other artists? Had McGill redrawn the same image but slightly differently for another publisher?

In some cases it's fairly obvious these are copies by another hand ... but there are some that keep you wondering!

E.S. 2007	I have two copies of this card. Neither has any publisher information. One is numbered "636 B",  the other just says "Printed in Germany"
E.S. 2019 (Postmarked 1908)	(Postmarked 1911) No publisher information. It just says "Printed in Germany"
E.S. 111 (Postmarked 1906) This is the earliest of three versions of this card produced by McGill	E.L.P. Co. Series (Postmarked 1913)
E.S. 86 (Postmarked 1906)	E.L.P. Co. Series

There does appear to be a pattern emerging here. It looks like the E.L.P Co. were copying the cards published by E.S. I have a number of other examples which I shall post at a later date. Was this some sort of contractual arrangement between the two companies or just a case of E.L.P. not bothering to be original and trying to take advantage of McGill's success?

Some of the above cards by McGill do say "Copyright" on the reverse but that doesn't seem to have stopped the blatant copying. It's obvious that copyright was not upheld very vigorously for postcards back in Edwardian times.

New Section - More about McGill

I've just added a new page called 'More about McGill'. It's a work in progress at the moment but lists various books and pamphlets about McGill that are available. Each entry will eventually have a short review about the publication.

In the future I hope to add magazine and newspaper articles as well. If you are aware of any please let me know.

The link to the 'More about McGill' page is in the Navigation bar just below the header picture.

It's very airy, isn't it, Maudie?

Recognising one of McGill's designs, especially an early one, can be quite difficult as he didn't always sign them. This example is clearly one of his because it is signed.

Unknown publisher No. 1009
Early 1910s

Finding the above card is useful confirmation when you come across the one below which is obviously the same ... but for some reason isn't signed although it appears to be exactly the same design apart from the colour difference due to different printers. It is also slightly cropped and the type font is different.

Published by Joseph Asher & Co., No 185
Postmarked 1911

If the top design had not been signed there could have been some doubt about whether it was a McGill or not especially with there not being a publisher's mark either. Although, I'm guessing, most collectors would have recognised his style. However, the bottom design would have been easier to attribute to McGill without a signature because it was published by Joseph Asher & Co.

So why was one signed and not the other?

New section on McGill's Publishers

I've just added a new page about the different publishers identified with McGill's postcards. See the link on the navigation bar at the top of the blog just below the image and title.

Publishers are another confusing element of the McGill story. The information I have is limited in many cases. Even the few books about McGill do not have any great detail about the publishers apart from the obvious main ones - Joseph Asher & Co., Inter-Art Co. and D Constance Ltd.  I intend to update the page about publishers as and when I come across anything new.

McGill is definitely known to have worked with certain publishers but his periods of freelance work are much hazier. Plus there may have been some unscrupulous publishers who printed his cards without permission. The full story may never be clear!