When Carreras in 1929 commissioned artist Tom Cottrell to produce a series of caricatures featuring Members of Parliament, no one could have foretold that among the hundreds of potential subjects Cottrell would chose fifty which included not only the current Prime Minister (Baldwin) and two former P.Ms (Lloyd George and MacDonald) but also the two future Premiers (Chamberlain and Churchill) to give a virtually unbroken run of leaders from 1916 to 1945. Politics was even more of a man’s world then than it is today, and only two women are included Miss Susan Lawrence and Lady Astor, the Conservative member for Plymouth (Sutton) and the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons (in 1919). Among others we meet the Lord Chancellor/unofficial deputy P.M. Lord Hailsham, Lord Salisbury son of the former Premier, “Uncle Arthur” Henderson the veteran socialist, Capt. Wedgwood Benn and Arthur Greenwood – invaluable to Labour for his position in the T.U.C. The artwork is terrific and you can distinguish the Commons from the Lords by the colour of the upholstery, green or red respectively.

This set of M50 Notable MPs issued by Carreras in Very Good to Finest Collectable condition is catalogued at £30.00.