Vanity Fair Spy Cartoons

We have a large stock of original antique Vanity Fair "Spy" cartoons & caricatures by artists including "Spy" (Leslie Ward), and "Ape" (Carlo Pellegrini). Vanity Fair was a weekly magazine published in London, founded & edited by Thomas Gibson Bowles. His aim was to expose to contemporary vanities of Victorian society. From 1868 to 1914, full page colour lithographs appeared in most weekly issues, frequently lampooning or lauding their subjects which included artists, athletes, royalty, politicians, scientists, authors, actors, sportsmen, lawyers, diplomats, soldiers, clergy, scholars & other celebrities of the day - mostly British, but also many other internationally significant personalities. Over 2,300 of these colour cartoons were printed, and they are considered the chief cultural legacy of the magazine, forming a pictorial record of many of the most significant public figures of the period. They are renowned throughout the world and highly collectible and recognisable. Famous artists contributed to Vanity Fair, typically under pen names. The best remembered today is Leslie Ward (1851-1922), who signed his works as "Spy", and whose caricatures account for well over half of those featured in Vanity Fair. So famous have these fabulous prints become, Vanity Fair caricatures today often are referred to simply as "Spy Cartoons". 'Spy', his nom de crayon, referred to his frequently used method of observing his victims secretly or from a distance for example at the racecourse, in the law courts, in church, in the university lecture theatre, or in the lobby of the Houses of Parliament. Whether drawn by Ward himself or another of the Vanity Fair artists, including Carlo Pellegrini, aka 'Singe' and 'Ape' (whose work is regarded by many as technically and artistically superior), Guth, Lib, "T" et al, the caricatures from this exceptional and unique publication have become prized collectibles. They epitomise Victorian society during the heyday of the British Empire.

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Vanity Fair Spy Cartoons

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Douglas Hamilton Mclean 'Ducker' Rowing 1897 old print

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Charles Murray Pitman 'OUBC' Rowing. Oxford 1895 print

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Alfred Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe. Newspapers 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Edward George Percy Littleton 'Lord Hatherton' 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Dr Robert Farquharson 'West Aberdeenshire' 1895 print

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Louis Marie-Julien Viaud 'Pierre Loti' Writer. GUTH 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON August Friedrich Manns 'Crystal Palace' Music 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Arthur, 3rd Baron Wrottesley 'A Staffordshire Peer' 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON William Wither Bramston Beach 'West Hampshire' MP 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Admiral Charles Beresford 'Steam Reserve' Military 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Robert Reid, Earl Loreburn 'Mr Attorney' Law 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Rudolph Chambers "R.C." Lehmann 'Rudy' Rowing 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Baron Chodron de Courcel 'The French Ambassador' 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Frederick Spencer Hamilton 'The Pall Mall Magazine' 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON 'Barney' Barnato. South African Randlord. Mining 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Philip William May. 'Phil'. Artist. Caricaturist 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Robert Uniacke-Penrose-Fitzgerald Cambridge Borough 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON 'Count Paul Metternich'. German Prussian Diplomat 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Robert Haldane-Duncan, 3rd 'Earl of Camperdown' 1895

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Sir Henry Hoyle Howorth 'a Lancashire Lad' 1895 print

VANITY FAIR SPY CARTOON Dean Samuel Hole of Rochester 'Roses' Clergy. FTD 1895

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