Print of the Day: The Music Hall Topical, 1890

Music Hall Topical
1890
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here’s a very funny scrap which dates to about 1890.  This was produced as part of a series of scraps which depicted caricatures of “fashionable” ladies and gentlemen, especially those involved with the theatre.

Meant to be collected in an album or used to decorate a card or other object, this scrap depicts the “man about town” music hall character, sometimes called a “swell.”  This dandy is sporting a fashionable type of moustache made popular in London in the 1860s and 1870s by Edward Southern who played a character called “Dundreary” in “Our American Cousin.”

With his “Dundreary” moustache, he is shown wearing a white bow tie, a monocle in his right eye, a black top hat, blue gloves, and holding a cane to his face. The title reads,  “Music Hall Topical.”  It was printed by Siegmund Hildesheimer & Co.