Eric Fraser at the Seaside

Eric Fraser designed and illustrated this ad for Guinness for publication in the summer of 1951 - the year of the Festival of Britain on London’s South Bank. A gallery of Victorian seaside characters has been assembled in a nostalgic exercise, celebrating the past.  A curiosity of the Festival iconography is the prevalence of Victorian associations and imagery in an exercise designed to embrace the excitement of the future. Most of these stereotypes have long receded into history but the Masher is still with us, though he has swapped the promenade for the manosphere and the dating app. The Punch and Judy Man and the Pierrot were key players in the world of seaside entertainment - a major activity in the first half of the last century, rapidly moving towards extinction by 1951. The concealed charms of the Bathing Belle had given way to a new era of exposure and the prudish Bathing Machine (beach hut on wheels, usually horse-drawn) had long since performed its final trundle along the English foreshore. Producers of vintage postcards captured all these characters at the height of their powers - some examples are posted below. Often they are incidental captures, minor parts of a much broader picture but occasionally a more imaginative photographer will focus on the documentary detail. The Masher was a figure of fun and more likely to turn up on hand drawn illustration postcards. This selection starts at Hastings with a Punch and Judy show of modest dimensions, then moves on to Scarborough, Millport, Clacton and other resorts where Pierrots and Minstrels take to the stage, to be followed by some more generic examples. In another post, the Masher and the Bathing Belle will be considered.

 

Guinness Scrapbook 1937

We like to think of embarrassment as a uniquely British thing but the concept is present in every known language. It’s especially prevalent among the English thanks to the local tradition of invented codes of behaviour, vocabulary, idioms, pronunciations - all designed to divide outsiders from insiders and perpetuate class distinctions.  Cartoonist H M Bateman arrived in England from South Africa with a readymade chip resting on his shoulder, a grumpy disposition and a casual fluency in drawing social tableaus. Ideally qualified to explore the English world of embarrassment and unwitting social transgression, he took pleasure in distorting the human features to convey all the nuances of social terror and personal humiliation - hair that quivers as it uplifts from the scalp, eyes on the verge of exploding from their sockets, lips that tremble and splutter, bodies that vibrate with shame.  A new genre was created in which the discomfort of disgraced victims was mercilessly exposed for the entertainment of all. When he wasn’t working much of his time was spent in protracted and ultimately unsuccessful disputation with tax authorities having conceived an obsessive aversion to all forms of taxation.

The Guinness offer to the nation’s doctors for 1937 was a collection of literary and visual tributes to the virtues of the famous stout presented the reader as if pasted into a scrapbook with a cover design by Antony Groves-Raines, many if not all of them were extracted from previous advertising campaigns. The page sequence was broken up with full page colour cartoons drawn by Bateman, themed around the worlds of golf, cricket and performance, relatively gentle in tone. Several of these had already featured in press and magazine ads. The choice of subjects reveals an assumption that the medical profession of the day was exclusively male - not really unsafe for 1937. For another selection of Bateman’s work for Guinness, please follow this link.  As for the product, Guinness has never been more popular with a new generation falling for its distinctive charms to the point where the brewers were declaring a shortage late last year which had the desired effect of boosting sales even further as consumers rushed to stockpile.  Diageo (corporate owners of the brand) responded to their good fortune, not as you might expect by expanding production but by considering selling the company to take advantage of its increase in value.  Must be what they teach in business school. 

 

Archway Tavern - the Vanishing Clock

There’s a monumental London pub in a commanding position at Archway, named the Archway Tavern.  Built in 1888, much of its Victorian external detailing remains intact. Even though the last few years have not been kind, it lives on and occupies its location with confidence.  Since the year 2000 it has hosted a Guinness timepiece in which an unlikely combination of a labourer, a seal, an ostrich and a toucan support a clock. In its complete form it spelled out the words "Guinness Time - Millennium Time” but sadly since 2010 it has been shedding letters at an alarming rate and a mere handful remain to this day.  Streetview images illustrate the steady disintegration. The fate of the falling letters may never be known but if they still exist somewhere it would be nice to see them replaced.  Nobody expects the clock to work but given the rarity of these signs in England, restoration would be welcome. The figures are based on the characters drawn by James Gilroy and can be seen in this example photographed in 2017 in Skibbereen. Two postcards of past Guinness clocks are shown at the end.

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1951

 

What will they think of next? – a Guinness brochure

Here’s a phrase that perfectly encapsulates the exasperation of English conservatism with the onward march of progress. The 16 page illustrated booklet reproduced here was produced in 1954 by Guinness for distribution to the medical profession. Food rationing had finally ended and post-war reconstruction was being followed by ambitious slum clearance projects - the age of the tower block was at hand. Britain’s future was invested in nuclear energy and jet powered flight. Unfortunately this was the year that two Comet airliners crashed into the Mediterranean and with them went Britain’s hopes of becoming a world power in aviation. Easy access to credit in the form of Hire Purchase Agreements helped to boost a sense of prosperity but the age of austerity was giving way to an age of anxiety. The English appetite for verbal and visual whimsy was well catered to in this publication with the addition of a strong flavour of resentment at technological change and a comforting surrender to nostalgia. An unknown scribe at S H Benson (the Guinness advertising agency) wrote the verses and neatly parodied the English instinct to reject innovation in any shape or form – often before adopting it with disproportionate enthusiasm. The illustrations were the work of Antony Groves-Raines – a master of visual charm with a talent for combining his own magic realism and crisp contours with a jaunty amiability certain to please.

Homeland Guinness

Malin Head, County Donegal

It’s no surprise that the name of Guinness is attached to so many bars and pubs in its country of origin. This selection includes several examples that are homages to the celebrated range of posters illustrated for Guinness in the UK by James Gilroy. There’s a strong tradition of hand-painted publicity in Ireland and while some are more or less transcriptions of Gilroy originals at least one example, photographed in the north of Donegal, close to Malin Head, has been specially conceived for its coastal location.

Skibbereen, County Cork

Gougane Barra, County Cork

Dungarvan, County Waterford

Enniscorthy, County Wexford

Buncrana, County Donegal

Album Victorianum 1951

A gift from Guinness to the nation’s General Practitioners in the year of the Festival of Britain, 1951. Album Victorianum is a visual snapshot of Victoriana gently parodied through a mid-century prism. The layout and presentation is typical of publications like The Saturday Book in the whimsical combination of period fonts, steel engravings and toy theatres. The Guinness advertising agency, S H Benson conceived the theme, provided the text and commissioned the illustrations. Three artists contributed illustrations, Ronald Ferns, Eric Hobbs and Eric Fraser.