Stay, Please. Vanity Fair Spy caricature. Reproduction print.
$40.00
Vanity Fair reproduction. Mr Justice William Ventris Field, Baron Field of Bakeham (1813-1907). Printed from a lithograph of a 'Spy' caricature originally published on April 30, 1887. Spy was the pseudonym of prolific and popular caricaturist, Sir Leslie Ward (1851-1922) (knighted in 1918).
Sir William Ventris Field was born at Fielden, in Bedfordshire, four-and-seventy years ago, and is therefore amongst the most venerable of Her Majesty's Judges. He enjoyed a private but very useful education, being articled in his youth to a solicitor at Exeter, from whose office he presently migrated to London, to be there entered upon the roll of attorneys and solicitors. Three years of pracise in this capacity fitted him for admission to the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, by whom he was called to the Bar in 1850, when, like other wise barristers who have made to themselves friends of the Mammon of Law, he got briefs. As he showed energy and capability in the conduct of the commercial cases, his practise grew: so that, in 1864, he was not refused "silk" when he asked for it.
As a leader, Mr. Field developed into a remarkabl good cross-examiner, which would hardly have been expected from his antecedents; and many are the stories which are still told of his witty sallies and of his ways and means with hostile or otherwise refractory witnesses…
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 and Leslie Ward.
Page size 300 x 212mm (11 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches). Image size 235 x 140mm (9 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches)
