The Auxiliary Forces. Vanity Fair caricature, Soldier lithograph c1875.

$90.00

Antique print Caricature of William Keppel, Lord Bury, PC, KCMG. Viscount Bury was the 7th Earl of Albemarle.

Original antique print. Great caricature by “Ape”, Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889), for Vanity Fair ‘Men of the Day’, the weekly London periodical published in London between 1868 and 1914. Vanity Fair was a magazine of social comment. The weekly addition of a wonderful caricature of a newsworthy person, guaranteed the magazines popularity. Thomas Gibson Bowles, who established the periodical, considered the images to be “grim faces made more grim, grotesque figures made more grotesque, and dull people made duller by the genius of our talented collaborator ‘Ape’ (Carlo Pellegrini). The other major caricaturist was ‘Spy’ (Leslie Ward).

"The Van Keppels are supposed to have been a noble race in Holland for some centuries before Arnold-Joost settled himself with William of Orange in England, and the earldom of Albemarle. Lord Bury being the next hope of the family might have contented himself with the honourable obscurity of an expectant earl, but he had an active turn of mind and a laborious desire to distinguish mimself as well as his ancestors. He was born three-and-fifty years ago, adopted the guards, became private secretary to Lord Russell, went to India as an aide-de-camp, and at twenty-two was made Civil Secretary and Superintendent-General of Indian affairs in Canada. Having thus qualifed for statesmanship…, he drew the line at Gladstone, and when that Minister produced the Royal Warrant for the Abolition of Purchase in the Army, he declared himself converted to conservatism, to which he has since adhered… For he is a soldier by nature and a sailor by choice, and thus is very apt to throw himself alone into the most imminent deadly breaches, whenever a suggestion is raised that there is a breach. He is honest, courageous, and obstinate, and invaluable therefore for any desperate service in the council or the field…He has ruled Indians, written books, commanded a yacht, made speeches, and drilled the Civil Service with so much success as to make him a representative of the auxiliary forces." (text available)

Page: 355 x 235mm. Image 310 x 185mm. Slight soiling as per usual.