The Profaned Pencil surveys the vivid and unruly world of British political caricature between 1600 and 1860. It follows the rise of graphic satire from polemical seventeenth-century broadsides to the exuberant prints of the Georgian era and the mass-market illustrated press of Victorian Britain. Caricature lay at the intersection of politics, art and the commercial print trade, with satirical images functioning as both entertainment and political commentary. From attacks on monarchs and ministers to reflections on class, gender and war, caricature became a powerful and popular means of informing public debate. Illuminating the artists, technologies and markets that propelled its spread, Helen Pierce provides new insights into how caricature mediated authority, dissent and identity over two and a half transformative centuries. ‘A thoughtful and fascinating book on the strangest of our visual arts. Pierce has reopened caricature on her own terms and drawn a whole series of new lines through history. A book for anyone who likes funny, lurid, and humiliating art forms.’ – Dan Sperrin, research fellow in English, Trinity College, Cambridge, and author of State of Ridicule: A History of Satire in English Literature
