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Title: [Tightening the grip]
Creator(s): Tenniel, John, 1820-1914, artist Date Created/Published: 1877 Dec. 1 [publication date] Medium: 1 drawing : pencil, with red crayon on bristol board ; 23.4 x 18.1 cm. (sheet) Summary: A large bear hugs a Turkish man, who clasps a bloody dagger, in a tight grip. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-87772 (b&w film copy neg.) Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication. No renewal in Copyright Office. Call Number: SWANN – no. 710 (A size) [P&P] Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print Notes: No copyright information found with item. Signed, lower right: JT monogram / 1877. Title from Punch. Bequest and gift; Caroline and Erwin Swann; 1974; (DLC/PP-1974:232.637) The published version was accompanied by a poem encouraging England to condemn the Turkish massacre of the Bulgarian Christians and to support the Russians in the Turkish-Russian war, in progress in the Balkan region. England in the past had been a close ally of Turkey. Around 1876, anti-Turkish sentiment increased among the English and in particular, among Liberals, as a result of alleged Turkish brutality towards the Bulgarians. Former Prime Minister Gladstone, himself a Liberal, made a published appeal to the government and general population in a pamphlet entitled, The Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East (1876). Conservative Prime Minister Disraeli, a staunch supporter of Turkey, was infuriated by Gladstone’s effort to incite dissension and refused to change his policy. In a conference of world leaders held in Constantinople in December 1876, Turkey was pressured to make reforms in her treatment of the Bulgarians. The Turks refused and in early 1877, Russia declared war on Turkey. Disraeli’s government continued to stand by the Turks, offering financial assistance which threatened and eventually wore out the tired Russian army. Here, Tenniel comments on the war between Russia and Turkey, with the bear a symbol of the Russians. Published in: Punch, December 1, 1877.
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