The Birth of the Modern British Post

The Mulreadys

Cheap thrills

John Leech produced this Mulready envelope caricature featuring flying posties distributing mail, rather than floating angels, as on Mulready's original design. The artist signed his work with a tiny drawing of a leech in a bottle just below the address. The sender paid a penny to mail his joke, as this was not an official envelope.

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John Leech, Fores comic envelope No. 1