Charles Stuart-Wortley, 'Sheffield'

Signed 'Spy' (Leslie Ward) and captioned "Sheffield", this chromolithograph from Vanity Fair's long-running 'Statesmen' series depicts C. B. Stuart-Wortley, MP for the Sheffield Hallam division, in three-quarter profile. He wears a buff top hat, dark frock coat, and tan trousers — the studied informality of a prosperous Conservative backbencher — and tucks a sheaf of papers under one arm, the standard Spy shorthand for parliamentary diligence. The caricature is mild in manner: a neat moustache, broad jaw, and slight forward lean constitute its comic exaggeration. The Sheffield caption neatly reduces the man to his constituency, a gentle political joke implying he is more borough than statesman.