Charles I Tries to Put It Across the Commons
1938.
Original cartoon in pen and ink heightened in blue pastel on paper. 500x350mm. Signed at the bottom right. The cartoon depicts Churchill in parliament carrying Duncan Sandys in this back to meet Leslie Hore-Belisha dressed as Charles I, entering parliament with guards as he did in 1642 with a proclamation demanding "the body of Duncan Sandys" and the caption beneath, "This, I am assured, is the proper military procedure in matters of this kind" - HORE-BELISHA In very good condition, mounted framed and glazed.
A fine, large drawing by the foremost political cartoonist of his era. Appearing in the Evening Standard on 1 July 1938, it lampoons what became known as the Sandys Affair, where a young MP and a serving Second Lieutenant was unguardedly outspoken about the inadequacy of Britain's air defences. Leslie Hore-Belisha, then Secretary of State for War, threatened Sandys with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act if he did not reveal his source. However Sandys, backed by Churchill (who happened to be his father in law), successfully claimed Parliamentary Privilege, leading to a mild rebuke for Hore-Belisha by a parliamentary select committee.
PROVENANCE: Leslie Hore-Belisha (1893-1957, Member of Parliament and Government Minister, purchased directly from Low); Family descent.
LITERATURE: Evening Standard, 1 July 1938; The Private Papers of Hore-Belisha (Collins, 1960) p.126.
Stock ID: 46935
£3,000.00
