Print of the Day: A Punch & Judy Show

Click on image for detail.Punch & Judy Show
John Augustus Atkinson
Late Eighteenth to Early Nineteenth Century
The George Speaight Archive at
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This handsome lithograph is likely the work of John Augustus Atkinson (1775-1835) and dates to the late Eighteenth to early Nineteenth Century.

The print gives us a taste of the cross section of society who would have stopped in their day to be entertained by a Punch & Judy show on the street. Ladies and laborers alike have stopped to see Punch’s antics.

I like this quite a lot. However, I have one question. We see the crowd. We see the “bottler.” We see the booth, the puppets, and even a mule. But, where’s the professor? The fit-up is curiously uncovered at the bottom—exposing the legs of the portable structure. So, technically, we should see the knees, legs and feet of the puppeteer. Take a look. No professor! Was this a purposeful omission? A mistake? Was Atkinson trying to tell us that the Punch and Judy tradition is an entity of its own that will continue through generations? Was he trying to tell us that Punch and his friends were the stars of the show, not the man behind the curtain?

We’ll never know, but I like to think of it as meaning that Punch is a creature of his own—independent of those of us who may temporarily assist him in his work.