Here’s a curiosity!  A set of four cards (numbered 1 to 4) in a series titled “Stretches of Imagination” designed by WM Thompson and published by William Luks. Each one has a cartoon depicting a different Victorian personality in an unlikely situation with an accompanying rhyme, always with the opening line “Conceive him, IF you can”, a direct reference to the second act song “When I go out of door” from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera “Patience”. Each caption has eight lines in two stanzas, following the scansion of the WS Gilbert lyric very closely. Although the personalities are not named, some pencil annotations on the back give likely attributions. No. 1 is clearly Prime Minister Gladstone with his distinctive collar, depicted as “The Don Quixote of Politics”; No. 2 is Liberal statesman John Bright as a bigoted Tory squire; No. 3 has been identified as Archbishop of Canterbury Archibald Campbell Tait, although this seems less likely; No. 4 is probably Prime Minister Lord Salisbury as a jester, surrounded by comic papers. The 4.25” by 6.5" cards have some age-toning and small areas of surface wear with bumped corners but are generally in fair condition. 

This item was formerly in the collection of John Cannon, the respected G&S collector and researcher who died in 2021. He left instructions that all collectors should have a chance to acquire the treasures in his collection, which will therefore be auctioned here over the next year or so by StageMemories and PaperJoys. Please let us know if you would like to be added to a mailing list, to be informed of all or specific items from John’s collection.