Parliamentary Practice, Thomas Erskine May. Ape legal caricature.

$50.00

Reproduction printed from a Vanity Fair lithographic caricature by 'Ape' (Carlo Pellegrini, 1839-1889), the first artist for Vanity Fair magazine. Pellegrini came to London from Naples where he was popular with socialites and drew caricatures of them in appreciation of their patronage. The caricatures published in Vanity Fair were often responsible for the reputation of hapless individuals who were newsworthy.

In 1868 Thomas Gibson Bowles (1842-1922) founded Vanity Fair magazine with eight to ten pages each issue. Writing most of the regular editorial under various pseudonyms, Bowles's indiscriminate provocative and disarmingly fearless attitude gained a wide audience – and was beneficial to him during his later political career. Vanity Fair became immensely popular from 1869 on, after inclusion each week of one amusing lithographed caricature of a prominent person. While it became a point of pride with some to be the victim of one of the magazine's caricaturists, the caricatures were often responsible for the reputation of these hapless individuals. The most important artists were Carlo Pellegrini and Leslie Ward.

This larger series is more similar in style to the originial antique lithographs – both in colour and softer definition of image. Large margins all round… almost too large for the scanner. Page size approx. 325 x x 225mm (12 3/4 x 8 7/8 inches). Image size 280 x 170mm (11 x 6 3/4 inches). (Faint spots on page.)