SOURCE: This is an original cartoon from British Punch humor and satire magazine, drawn by John Tenniel, published October 3, 1885 and pulled from the magazine; original, not a modern reproduction. Full size: 8 x 10 1/2 inches, including borders. Pictured image is slightly cropped. CONDITION: excellent -- very light age toning, paper is clean and has been humidified and flattened for best appearance and for framing; the backside is blank.
THE CHEEKY CHICK
Alexander the Little [Prince Alexander of Bulgaria]. “My! What a Row I’m Making!!”
+ Turkey, which owes a great deal of money to European lenders, loses territories after the European powers slice off Bulgaria. Turkey, which proved itself too weak to protect Egypt, nominally its province, from Russia had already in effect ceded it to England.
+ Eastern Rumelia was an autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire, created in 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin and de facto ended in 1885, when it was united with the Principality of Bulgaria, also under Ottoman suzerainty. It continued to be an Ottoman province de jure until 1908, when Bulgaria declared independence. Ethnic Bulgarians formed a majority of the population in Eastern Rumelia, but there were significant Turkish and Greek minorities. Its capital was Plovdiv. The official languages of Eastern Rumelia were Bulgarian, Greek and Ottoman Turkish.
+ Turkey watches as the Treaty of Berlin hatches to reveal a chick with Roumelia and Bulgaria on each wing. This relates to the news that revolution had broken out in Eastern Roumelia and that its union to Bulgaria had been decided. Prince Alexander of Bulgaria agreed and set off for his new territory. The move was opposed by Russia, Germany and Austria as being contrary to the terms of the Treaty of Berlin.
+ Eastern Rumelia was created as an autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The region roughly corresponded to today's southern Bulgaria, which was also the name the Russians proposed for it; this proposal was rejected by the British. The artificial name, Eastern Rumelia, was given to the province on the insistence of the British delegates to the Congress of Berlin: the Ottoman notion of Rumelia refers to all European regions of the empire, i.e. those that were in Antiquity under the Roman Empire. Some twenty Pomak (Bulgarian Muslim) villages in the Rhodope Mountains refused to recognize Eastern Rumelian authority and formed the so-called Republic of Tamrash.
+ The province is remembered today by philatelists for having issued postage stamps from 1880 on.
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WHO IS THE ILLUSTRATOR?
Sir John Tenniel (28 February 1820 – 25 February 1914) was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he was knighted for artistic achievements in 1893, the first such honour ever bestowed on an illustrator or cartoonist.
Tenniel is remembered mainly as the principal political cartoonist for Punch magazine for over 50 years and for his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871). Tenniel's detailed black-and-white drawings remain the definitive depiction of the Alice characters, with comic book illustrator and writer Bryan Talbot stating, "Carroll never describes the Mad Hatter: our image of him is pure Tenniel."
WHAT IS PUNCH?
Punch, a magazine of humor and satire, ran from 1841-2002. A very British institution renowned internationally for its wit and irreverence, it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. Punch was the world's most celebrated magazine of wit and satire. From its early years as a campaigner for social justice to its transformation into national icon, Punch played a central role in the formation of British identity -- and how the rest of the world saw the British nation. In its formative years Punch combined humors, illustration and political debate with a fresh and radical audacity. During its heyday in the late 1800s, it reflected the conservative views of the growing middle-classes and copies of it could be found in the libraries of diplomats, cabinet ministers and even royalty. In the Western world, Punch played a significant role in the development of satire. In the world of illustration, it practically revolutionized it. Over the decades as it charted the interests, concerns and frustrations of the country and today it stands as an invaluable source of cartoon art, satire, but as primary source material for historians.