Bawdy seaside postcards that sold by their millions before World War Two are to go on display for the first time since they were banned for indecency in 1954. The risqué collection by Donald McGill, which features corpulent old ladies, drunk middle-aged men and salacious vicars, have been put on show at a new museum.
McGill was a prolific artist, designing more than 12,000 cards over six decades, and selling more than 200 million cards in British seaside towns.But a particularly raunchy collection was banned due to their inappropriate content during a clean-up of British seaside resorts in 1954, and the artist charged with publishing obscene images.
Now each can be viewed at a museum in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, which is home to the world's largest collection of McGill's work. The artist's fame was such that George Orwell termed him "the most prolific and by far the best of contemporary postcard artists." At the height of his fame McGill only earned three guineas a design, but today his original artwork sells for up to £1,700 in auction and up to £2,500 in London galleries.
James Bissell-Thomas, owner of the Donald McGill Postcard Museum, said: "What is startling is how innocent the majority of these 'obscene' cards were... "It seemed to be a bit of a witch hunt and was really very sad. Many of the images had been on display in the 1930s and 1940s and they were suddenly seen as a threat to society. "
The artist's career began in 1904 when he sent a cartoon to a nephew in hospital which featured a man up to his neck in a frozen pond and read "Hope you get out!" It was submitted to a publisher who commissioned his work, and he went on to design a number of cards riddled with double-entendres ranging from the clever to the vulgar.
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| Self Portrait By Donald McGill |
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