The Sketch was an upmarket UK weekly published on quality paper stock. Bristling with sepia portraits of the landed gentry at play – fly-fishing for trout in Scotland, attending the races at Ascot and dismounting from thoroughbreds after the local fox hunt – the magazine reads like the social pages of the British upper class.
Charity events and high profile engagements and marriages were lavishly celebrated. Theatrical debuts were noted and London shows were reviewed. Luxuriant and prohibitively priced fashions were an essential feature. Double-barreled surnames and hereditary titles were most definitely the order of the day.
But The Sketch went beyond the lives of the stuffy 1930s British upper crust. The magazine published profiles of promising young artists, homages to those who were more established, pull-out colour centerfolds by noted illustrators and a full page of golf tips. (‘Following Through’ by Sandy Bunker.)
Finally, to cement the magazine’s aspirations towards semi-literary status, The Sketch ran the excellent regular feature, ‘The Literary Lounger’, by L. P. Hartley (who wrote The Go Between.)
Below are example magazine covers from different decades. Click on an image to view a larger version.
