Art History’s Dr Helen Pierce has secured a Large Author Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. This award will support the publication of Helen’s latest book, The Profaned Pencil: A History of British Political Caricature, 1600-1860, enabling colour illustrations throughout.
The Profaned Pencil surveys the vivid and unruly world of British political caricature between 1600 and 1860, following the rise of graphic satire from polemical seventeenth-century broadsides to the exuberant prints of the Georgian era and the mass-market illustrated press of Victorian Britain. Caricature lay at the intersection of politics, art and the commercial print trade, with satirical images functioning as both entertainment and political commentary.
From attacks on monarchs and ministers to reflections on class, gender and war, caricature became a powerful and popular means of informing public debate. Illuminating the artists, technologies and markets that propelled its spread, this book provides new insights into how caricature mediated authority, dissent and identity over two and a half transformative centuries.
The Profaned Pencil: A History of British Political Caricature, 1600-1860 will be published by Reaktion Books in Autumn 2026.
