A Merry Christmas

This print shows a humorous situation in which a family arrives for Christmas dinner only to be informed that the owner has left. The humour was heightened by the fact that the message was conveyed by a black footman. The central figure says 'Well, Mr Crow, i hope we have not kept your Master waiting dinner.' The servant replies 'Oh, no - Massa gone out o'town, but him leave word he wish you all a Merry Christmas.' The crowd of figures give range to a wide range of expressions of surprise and disbelief, accentuated by the earnestness on the face of the black servant.

The text is also aimed at comic effect with the contrasting use of the word Master and Massa and plays upon the popularity of black servants in affluent households who were seen as a statement of wealth and social standing. However the scene is anachronistic for by this date (1838) black servants were no longer viewed as fashionable due to the successful campaigns for the abolition of the slave trade and the engraving may therefore be hinting at the perception of the rising social status of the black servant in Britain at this time..

William Kohler was active in the 1830s as a print publisher of satirical prints producing a popular series called ‘Eccentricities’.