As if they were alive

This card of a sculpture gallery guard patting a statue's bottom was originally published as a "New Donald McGill Comics" (i.e. no reference to D Constance at all) probably in 1940.

New Donald McGill Comics No. 935

A redrawn version was published with D. Constance Ltd. details and their address given as 22 Christchurch Street.

D. Constance Ltd. No 935

There is a slight variation to the caption, with the 'Yes' being removed otherwise there are just minor changes to the people and statues although the background colour has been changed from light to dark.

The copy I have is undated but it must be post-war due to the rhyme on the reverse:

The war is won, your £ s. d.
Has helped to bring us victory,
But saving still will pave the way
To that new world, for which we pray.

"KEEP SAVING FOR A RAINY DAY"

Presumably the original was a victim of the 1940 warehouse bombing which necessitated the redrawn image.

Many a battle

Many of the cards McGill drew for D. Constance Ltd. in the late 1930s were later reprinted using the same issue number and caption but with a slightly different image. I have already posted about some of these. The next three posts will focus on other examples.

This first card, which is unsigned, was probably originally published in 1939. I think that the card on the right will be the original version with the caption at the bottom and on the reverse has the rhyme:

Save all you can, please and invest,
To rid us from the Nazipest. 
Remember Friend, your £ s. d.
Will pave the way to victory.

D. Constance Ltd. No. 455

The card was later republished as the version on the left. The lady takes up less of the space and is standing on her right leg rather than the left while the gentleman peering round the curtain is slightly smaller too. Her rather strained facial expression remains the same though! My copy has a postmark date of 1953 and the rhyme on the reverse:

"KEEP SAVING FOR A RAINY DAY"
We saved to win the war,
Our efforts must not cease
By saving more and more,
We'll surely win the peace!

The reason for this card having to be redrawn is probably because the original was a victim of the bombing of the Constance warehouse in 1940.

It's very draughty

Unsigned, but definitely McGill cards, at first glance they appear to be the same ... but look closer and the differences begin to become apparent.

Overall the colours are different, the text uses different fonts, and there are little detail variations such as the spots in the hatband and the stones outlined on the ground. The more you look the more you see. One is a copy of the other, not an exact copy but not far off. 

Here are the reverse of the cards:

One is very obviously published by Joseph Asher & Co., printed in Belgium (which is slightly unusual) and is numbered A 86. However, the other card is also numbered A 86 but there are no publisher details and is printed in Holland. It is not unusual to find Asher cards which have been printed without publisher details and with only the printing origin and the card number, many of their cards were printed in Holland.

Were these both published by Joseph Asher? My gut reaction is that they were but I can't explain why the image is different on each card. Perhaps I'm wrong and one is a particularly good copy of the Joseph Asher original.

Another possible cause for the differences may be due to the printing processes used by different print companies.

Katoomba Copies

In some previous posts I've shown how McGill's cards produced for the publishers E.S. were copied by another publishing company - E.L.P. Co - in the early 1900s.

I have come across another instance of this happening much later and on a different continent. Green's Souvenirs of Katoomba, New South Wales in Australia have copied several of McGill's cards - having them redrawn with some slight variations by an unknown artist. 

Inter-Art and Constance originals have been used but in what seems a random selection. I have no idea how many they produced but these are the five examples I've found so far. I'm guessing they date from the 1950s as none of them are postmarked.

Greens G39

Constance 689

Greens G41

  

Inter-Art 7858

Greens G43

 

Inter-Art 7651

Greens G44

Constance 428

Greens G48

Constance 1038

My word - if you're not off

This card must have been alarmingly risque when it was first published!

I think the first version is the one published by E.S. London probably in 1907. It is signed by McGill and has the caption written in lower case on the bottom left side of the card.

E.S. 3110

The next version was probably published the following year, 1908, by Hutson Bros. It is exactly the same image (except the lady's shoe is missing), again signed (but in a slightly different position) but the caption is now all in block capitals and written across the bottom of the card (without the exclamation  marks but with apostrophes instead!!)

.

H.B.Series No. 638

The final version is of unknown date and publisher. It is a copy of the H.B. version with a few very minor variations in the image. However the main differences are that it is not signed and there is additional writing  - "All the fun of the Fair" has been added although the "My word..." text is the same but in a different font and printed in a slightly different position.

Unknown publisher

Not necessarily McGill

Sometimes you have to take a guess about a card as to whether it was drawn by McGill or not because many of his designs were unsigned.

Once you 'get your eye in' to McGill's style it can be relatively straightforward to spot one of his cards but his style did vary, especially in his early works, and these can be more difficult to recognise.

One short cut to identifying his work is to go by the publisher of the card but even that can be confusing. Although McGill worked for many different publishers in his career he is mostly identified with three - Joseph Asher & Co., Inter-Art Co. and D.Constance Ltd. (You could also add the Woolstone Bros. 'Milton' cards but these were reprints of Inter-Art Co. designs.) 

Some people who do not know McGill very well often presume that if the card is by one of these publishers and is unsigned then it must be a McGill. That is definitely not the case. It is very common to see cards misidentified in this way, take a look at some of the cards offered on eBay for a start.

Yes, the majority of the cards by these three companies were by McGill but they also issued cards by other designers and if they are unsigned too it can make identification difficult. Joseph Asher & Co., for example, published cards by E.Chandler (quite a lot by him), Syd, Will Adams, Reg Carter and Jacobus some of which were unsigned.

Three examples of non-McGill cards from Joseph Asher & Co.
E.Chandler  -  Syd  -  Unknown Artist

The Inter-Art Co., produced thousands of cards by many different artists. However most of McGill's were part of the 'Comique' series except for most of his 1914-18 War cards which were issued under assorted series headings and a few under the 'Artistique' heading. To make things really difficult a huge number of the 'Comique' series of cards were published without an artist's signature. Identifying these can be just a 'gut' reaction to the style!

One other artist who drew for Inter-Art Co. was Dudley Buxton whose cards are regularly misidentified as being by McGill. This is understandable in many cases because their styles were very similar although Buxton tended to draw his characters faces in a much more exaggerated and 'cartoon-y' way than McGill. I have bought some cards which at first I thought were McGill but as time has gone on I am not so sure or in some cases I am now certain they are actually by Buxton. 

Three examples of Dudley Buxton cards

Fred Spurgin (a very prolific artist) and Phil Martin also drew for Inter-Art Co. and their designs can sometimes be similar in style to McGill.

This card by Phil Martin is very similar to some designed by McGill

D.Constance Ltd. was pretty much set up to publish McGill's cards which they did from the mid-1930s through to the 1960s. But even this company had other artists working for them. There are definitely cards under the Constance 'New Donald McGill Comics' imprint by Stocker Shaw and another unidentified artist. I'd be interested to know if there are any others during this time frame.

Three examples of Stocker Shaw cards published by D.Constance Ltd.

So, there is no sure fire way of identifying McGill cards if they are not signed. In some cases you can only take an informed guess. I'm sure there are cards out there that haven't been spotted as being by McGill because they are in a slightly different style to his 'usual' output.

Look what two days have done

As well as XL producing alternate captions on cards there are also a number of cards published by D Constance Ltd., that do this too. Here's one of them (quite an early one) ...

D.Constance Ltd., No. 43
Postmarked 1936

D.Constance Ltd., No. R 43
Postmarked 1937