Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava

Signed by the less-celebrated 'ATn' (Alfred Thompson rather than the usual Spy or Ape), this chromolithograph presents Lord Dufferin — diplomat, poet, and future Viceroy of India — as Statesmen No. 46. He stands between two upholstered benches suggesting the Lords chamber, holding a folded paper and gesturing with one finger: the orator caught mid-argument. The caption, 'An exceptional Irishman,' is double-edged Victorian wit: Dufferin was Anglo-Irish aristocracy, Protestant, Eton-educated — exceptional precisely because he confounded English prejudices about the Irish. The caricature exaggerates his long jaw and heavy-lidded eyes but avoids the simian distortions routinely applied to Catholic Irish figures in Punch of the same period. The baron's coronet in the upper corner underscores his peerage rather than his nationality.