Cartoons from the pages of the Evening Standard will be auctioned off to help pay for a gravestone for the founding father of political caricature.
Organisers are hoping to raise thousand of pounds to replace the damaged stone at St James’s Church in Piccadilly where artist James Gillray is buried.
Work by Gerald Scarfe, Steve Bell and current Standard cartoonist Christian Adams, pictured, are among the lots being offered at next week’s sale, alongside famous cartoon strips such as Andy Capp.
Tim Benson, from the Political Cartoon Society, which is organising the sale, said: “His grave suffered a direct hit in the Second World War.
Years later an American cartoonist Draper Hill rediscovered him and got all the cartoonists to put a new stone down in 1961.
“But obviously they didn’t put a very good stone down as it is cracked and the inscription has rubbed away, so I thought we should get the cartoonists together again and get a stone that will last more than 60 years”.
Gillray, who died in 1815, was famous for his cutting portrayals of the royal family and politicians of his time.
The auction, which is being held on Wednesday at the Winchester House Club, Putney, starts at 7pm. All the works are being offered without reserve and must be sold on the night.
