Jerry Building: The Window, di H. Louw

This cartoon, published in the British trade journal, ‘The Illustrated Carpenter & Builder’, 30 May 1890, highlights the problems caused by the practice, ‘jerry-building’. The term was commonly used in Britain from the 1860s onwards and referred to work that was hastily constructed with inferior materials. In the late-19th century it became especially linked with the use of mass-produced machine products like wooden windows and doors imported in vast quantities from the USA and Sweden. The ubiquitous sash window, whose sliding operation demanded accurate craftsmanship, good materials and regular maintenance, became a litmus test for this phenomenon and therefore an effective target for caricature.