Autograph letter signed by illustrator Edward Tennyson Reed dated 1905

REED, Edward Tennyson (1860-1933). An autograph letter signed accepting an invitation to dine at the Reform Club and discussing politics. Cardiff House, Wimbledon Common. S.W. 7 June 1905.
 
Near fine. Single sheet folded (115 x 150 mm), written on three sides, on printed Cardiff House, Wimbledon Common headed paper with the telegraphic address "Prehistoric, London", a reference to Reed's celebrated "Prehistoric Peeps" cartoons. Old horizontal fold as issued; otherwise in excellent condition.
 
A letter from one of Punch magazine's best known illustrators and political cartoonists. Writing to a Mr Charles, Reed accepts an invitation to dine with members of the Reform Club, confessing that he is a nervous and bashful person and that only after 'a bout of mental ju-jitsu' had his 'modesty... succumbed to my pride'. He asks whether he will be expected to speak after dinner, requesting advance warning of the appropriate toast or subject. Reed then reflects on the political divisions within his own family during the Tariff Reform debate. 
 
Founded in 1836, the Reform Club became one of London's foremost political clubs, established to support the principles of the Reform Act of 1832 and closely associated with the Liberal Party. It attracted many of the leading politicians, writers and public figures of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, while its Pall Mall clubhouse became one of the capital's best-known political meeting places.