"The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger" (Punch, 1857)
A maned lion leaps in from the left onto a tiger that crouches over the body of a woman with an infant in her arm. The tell is the animal code: the rebels are reduced to a single striped predator, and Britain to the lion that avenges a woman and child, so the viewer is asked to judge the whole rising through one killing scene.
- Date
- August 22, 1857
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Punch, or the London Charivari (London satirical weekly); cartoonist John Tenniel
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Palmerston Government
- Leader
- Lord Palmerston
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- Empire and colonialism, War and the military
- Event
- Indian Rebellion of 1857
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1857; artist d. 1914; LOC: no known restrictions on publication)
After John Tenniel, Punch, or the London Charivari, 22 August 1857. Library of Congress, LOT 4625 B, LC-USZ62-34326.
Text on the object
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.—AUGUST 22, 1857. THE BRITISH LION'S VENGEANCE ON THE BENGAL TIGER.
Only the running head and the printed title are legible. Ghosted, reversed type from the other side of the leaf shows through beneath the title and is not part of this page. The committed JPEG is a 1280-pixel greyscale conversion of the LOC master TIFF.
