1870 Vanity Fair Caricature Viscount Ranelagh Men Day Original Lithograph Print For Sale

The second cropped photo is simply to show what it would look like if it was matted.
This is an original chromolithograph caricature from the British satirical magazine Vanity Fair, published in London on June 25, 1870, as part of the \"Men of the Day\" series (No. 9). Drawn by Italian artist Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889, using pseudonym \"Ape\"), it depicts Thomas Heron Jones, 7th Viscount Ranelagh (1812-1885), an Irish-born British nobleman, volunteer military leader, and amateur musician. Born in Fulham, London (though of Irish peerage), Ranelagh served in the British Army and founded the Volunteer Force in 1859 amid invasion fears from France, organizing rifle corps in London and commanding the 2nd South Middlesex Rifle Volunteers. In the 1870s, he was a controversial figure in Victorian society, involved in scandals including a high-profile affair and libel case in London courts (1860s-1870s). The caption \"He has succeeded in volunteering\" satirizes his enthusiastic promotion of the volunteer movement during a time of military reforms under Queen Victoria.The artwork shows Ranelagh in profile, wearing a top hat, smoking a cigar, holding a cane, with a crown icon denoting nobility, against a pale background—characteristic of Vanity Fair\'s humorous portraits of 19th-century elites.Size: approximately 8.5\" x 13.75\".