Abstract
This chapter argues that the heated political atmosphere of the Reform Bill crisis (1830–1832) dramatically expanded the market for, and the appearance of, political caricature. The expensive, engraved single print of the Georgian era gave way to an influx of multi-image, serialized and periodicalized genres which drew on new reprographic technologies such as lithography and wood-engraving. The chapter focuses on two publications which aimed at different markets: the expensive, stylish Looking Glass and the penny-issue periodical Figaro in London, both illustrated by Robert Seymour. Through close analysis of a range of images and page layouts, the chapter concludes that it was the format of Figaro in London which proved most influential in determining the future course of political caricature in Britain.
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Haywood, I. (2020). Re-forming Caricature: Political Crisis and the Reinvention of the Satirical Image 1830–1832. In: The Rise of Victorian Caricature . Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34659-1_2
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