John Tenniel in-depth analysis

Sir John Tenniel was a British illustrator, graphic humorist and cartoonist who's work was prominent in the later half of the 19th century in England. He is considered important in terms of the social, literary and history of art in that period. In 1893 he was knighted by Queen Victoria for his achievements in his field. Two of his most well known accomplishments are his work as the principle political cartoonist for England's Punch magazine (a weekly humor and satire magazine lasting from 1841 to 1992, drawing its name from the glove puppet act Punch and Judy) and later Lewis Carroll's Alice in wonderland and Alice through the looking glass.

This illustration is John Tenniel's interpretation of Davy Jones sitting on his locker. This image itself is dated to 1892 and shows Davy Jones reading a chart if the 1789 Ferrol harbour which was home to the HMS Howe which had run aground the same year. Davy Jones itself is an idiom for the bottom of or death at sea. The idea that when a person died there, their body would sink down into Davy Jones locker where it would remain. This satire illustration was making a joke of the incident by showing Davy jones looking for the ship on the map. 

Here is another example of the the work of John Tenniel. The piece was taken from Lewis Carroll's Alice in wonderland and shows the caterpillar smoking a pipe and talking to her as she peeps over the giant mushroom. When I look closer at the techniques that where used to apply the image, it appears    that initially pen an ink where used to draw the image because of the defined lines and the use of cross hatching. But of course this would be very in-efficient because thousands of copies would have been made. There for they would have created etchings and then put them into a print press.

 
In the sequel, Alice through the looking glass, Alice encounters the Jabberwocky. She first discovers the Jabberwocky in a poem in the back to front world of a looking glass. The Jabberwocky is a large reptile like creature, many features where drawn from dinosaurs, its scaled leathery skin and wings resembling those of a pterodactyl as well as its snake-like tale and claws with talons.