‘Police’ caricature. Vanity Fair lithograph. Admirable Australian policeman. c1875.

$150.00

Vanity Fair caricature. Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Yeamans Walcott Henderson, C.B.

It has been said of Colonel Henderson that he had only to walk down the street to have a good appointment offered to him.. ..he was sent from England "to Western Australia as Comptroller-General of Convicts, and being landed with his convicts on the shores of the Colony only to find that no preparations had been made to receive them, he set to work, and left there a complete organisation, while he took away with him the affection and good wishes of colonists whose common practice is to tear the officials to pieces.."

Original caricature lithograph printed in colour circa 1875 by Vincent Brooks, Day & Son, lithographers, after the caricature drawn by 'Ape', Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889), for Vanity Fair "Men of the Day". 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, parodying any newsworthy personage. 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, Leslie Ward, James Tissot and Alfred Thompson.

It is rare to find the text, even when cut from laid-down column strips. It provides a wonderful description of a much-admired policeman. Image size is 320 x 285mm (12.5 x 11.25 inches)