The Suffragist Breaks Windows - an advertising card Mrs Pankhurst c1911-12

[The National Women's Social and Political Union] An anti-suffrage advertising card: The Suffragist Breaks Windows, with ‘Mrs Pankhurst’ window-smashing hidden picture puzzle.
 
"How the increased cost of living affects us. The suffragist breaks windows and has a cheap two months in jail."
 
[Verso: John Butters Ltd., pawnbrokers and jewellers, 31 New Road, Spalding], c.1911–12.
 
125 x 75 mm. Printed advertising piece on thin paper stock, recto incorporating a concealed-image puzzle; verso with printed advertisement. Light handling wear, minor corner softening; very good.
 
A small commercial advertising piece employing the Edwardian ‘hidden picture’ device, in which the viewer is invited to locate a depiction of ‘Mrs Pankhurst’ engaged in breaking a window with a hammer. The subject draws on the widely reported campaign of window-smashing associated with the Women's Social and Political Union from 1911, one of the most visible phases of militant suffragette activity. The reference to ‘Mrs Pankhurst’ points to Emmeline Pankhurst, whose prominence made her a familiar figure in contemporary political and popular imagery. Ephemeral in nature, and seldom seen.