I Want a Vote Hammer - Away and You'll Get it

Freestanding cardboard calendar for the year 1914 shaped to represent a Suffragette wielding a toffee hammer. The paper calendar comprising twelve sheets of printed paper, one for each month of the year is stapled within the rectangular base of the calendar beneath a card cover printed 'Hammer Away and you'll get it'. This base, together with a panel of card attached to the back of the calendar by a brass split pin enables the calendar to be self-supporting and freestanding. On the back is the handwritten greeting 'Wishing you a very happy new year love from Mrs Thomas'.

Published by a commercial publisher the calendar offers a satirical representation of a Suffragette - the ugly facial features, manly clothing including a tie and pork pie hat offering a view commonly held by a cynical public by 1913 and 1914 that those campaigning for the vote were unwomanly and unattractive this type of hat also being associated with lesbianism. The toffee hammer held aloft by the Suffragette represents window smashing an official policy of the Women's Social and Political Union from late 1911. The green and white striped shirt and rosette are intended to represent the colour scheme of the WSPU but the blue on the rosette is inaccurate and should be purple.

The escalation of Suffragette militancy from 1912 and increased incidents of attacks on property including window smashing resulted in many members of the public and press losing sympathy with the 'votes for women' campaign. Many commercial publishers picked up on the public's growing intolerance with the campaign's militant methods by issuing satirical picture postcards and other visual material that mocked the Suffragettes and their 'unwomanly' ways.