In 1867, the editor of Punch offered Sambourne a job after he had seen a sketch that he had done of John Bright. In his early days Sambourne was heavily influenced by two of the artists employed by Punch, John Leech and Charles Keene. After a time he developed his own unique style. Sambourne's drawings were full of detail and to help with his accuracy, he had a collection of 10,000 catalogued photographs. This included portraits of every important person in Britain. As a young man, he had been a supporter of the Liberal Party but as he grew older he moved to the right. By the time he was in his fifties, Sambourne was described as more "conservative than the Conservative Party. Sambourne worked for Punch for 43 years and was still employed by the magazine when he died.
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