The likeness of Mr Punch was reproduced on many different household objects and souvenirs in the 19th century, such as this blotter holder. Blotting paper was inserted against the curved surface on the bottom, and blotted ink to dry it. Before the advent of felt-tips, rollerballs and biros, people wrote with pen and ink or fountain pens and needed blotting paper; a device such as this would have been a useful luxury. Mr. Punch was a very well known figure in England during the 19th century, because of Punch and Judy shows and because of the satirical magazine Punch, or The London Charivari, first published in 1841 featuring an image of him.

Punch was first recorded in England in 1662 by Samuel Pepys when he saw him as a marionette, operated in Covent Garden by the Italian puppet showman Signor Bologna. Pulchinella, as he was then called, was presented in a tent, rather than booth we know today. Punch changed over the years from marionette to glove puppet. Until the late 18th century, when he settled into his own play, he was used as a character in various plays, but his personality and appearance remained much the same. He was always an anarchist, flouting authority, and became one of the nation's best-loved bad-tempered brutes, with a big nose, hump back and corpulent stomach. He is holding his stick with which he beats everyone, including his wife, his baby and the policeman. Punch did not adopt the stick until the late 1700s when he became a glove puppet, making the manipulation of objects much easier for the operator.