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Watch out gents, it's a leap year! Rare collection of Donald McGill postcards that warned men about women proposing goes on display
By Amy Oliver
Last updated at 4:44 PM on 28th February 2012
Tomorrow brings the last day of February in a leap year which means only one thing - women can propose to men.
Any gents feeling anxious about this once-every-four-years phenomenon may like to take advice from a collection of 'leap year' postcards by Donald McGill.
The postcards, which date from the early 1900s when it was deemed improper for women to propose, all feature warnings to men about getting trapped by undesirable women on the only day they could traditionally pop the question.
They have now gone on display at the Donald McGill museum in Ryde, Isle of Wight, for the first time in 90 years - just in time for tomorrow's big day.
Warning: A bigamist, a pauper, a wife beater, an ex con and... an artist - the lengths men would go to in order to wriggle out of a leap year marriage proposal were imaginative if this early 1900s post card is anything to go by
Rather sexist: The postcards, by Donald McGill, were unearthed for an exhibition at the Donald McGill Postcard Museum in Ryde, Isle of Wight just in time for tomorrow's leap year event
'We were really surprised to find McGill had produced these unusual leap year cards,' said James Bissell-Thomas, owner of the Donald McGill Postcard Museum in Ryde.
'He is obviously most known for his seaside cards, but these just show that he was actually very diverse and is using Leap Year as an excuse for more puns and jokes.
'The cards have not been publicly displayed since they stopped being produced in the 1920's.'
In one men wear signs suggesting they are a bigamist, broke, a wife beater, an ex con and even an artist in order to fend off women's advances.
In another a rather manly woman in clodhopper shoes perches a chap on her knee and says: 'And when we're married George darling, I want you to give up your job in that horrid office!'
For centuries it was considered improper for women to propose, but there is a long tradition in Britain that proposals by a woman on a leap year were seemly and right.
Quite a proposal: The sexist cards show undesirable women who supposedly have no chance of getting a husband unless they ask themselves
Legend has it that in 1288 in Scotland it was made legal for women to propose to men on a Leap Year only.
However it wasn't all bad, If he declined he was told to provide her with a silk dress or pair of gloves.
In the 1800's and 1900's special marriage proposal cards were produced for women to give to their intended.
Most of McGill's cards, made between 1910 and 1925, show scared men who didn't want to get married or large women who would do anything they could to catch a husband.
One shows a large woman pinning her worried loved one to the ground with the words: 'I hear you've been taking lessons in jiu-jitsu for leap year.'
While another, entitled A Maiden's Prayer, shows a rather unattractive woman praying that her man will accept her marriage proposal: 'Now I lay me down to sleep, bless, oh bless, the year of leap. Unless a man jumps like a flea, he'll never get away from me.'
To have and to hold (on to): For centuries it was considered improper for women to propose, but there is a long tradition in Britain that proposals by a woman on a leap year were seemly and right
Origins: Legend has it that in 1288 in Scotland it was made legal for women to propose to men on a leap year only. However it wasn't all bad, if he declined he then had to buy her a silk dress or pair of gloves
A post war card shows a woman with huge muscles and an iron bar and the message: 'Last year I was too busy making munitions, but look out for yourselves this year you men!'
McGill features a scared man jumping from a second-storey window after his partner has proposed in one postcard, while a woman with a rope is shown trying to catch a man walking round the corner in another design.
'The cards are rarer than the seaside set as they were only produced every four years when there was a Leap Year,' Mr Bissell-Thomas said.
McGill went to art school in London and began his professional career as a naval architect, then as an engineering draughtsman.
But his postcard career kicked off by accident in 1904 when he sent a cartoon to a nephew in hospital of a man up to his neck in a frozen pond.
Investment: At the height of his fame McGill only earned three guineas a design, but today his cards are highly sought after with original artwork going for up to £2,500
The caption read 'Hope you get out!' and was forwarded to a publisher who commissioned his work.
McGill quickly became an expert in the art of the postcard double entendre and his designs were ingenious, twisted and often downright rude.
He produced a massive 12,000 different seaside postcards throughout his career but in 1954 he was charged with publishing obscene images and four of his cards were banned immediately and 17 more banned once existing stocks had been sold.
He died in 1962 aged 87.
At the height of his fame McGill only earned three guineas a design, but today his cards are highly sought after with his original artwork going for up to £1,700 in auction and up to £2,500 in London Galleries.
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